Eye of the Dragon
by dragonofraven
Summary: He roams the seas, taking down the greatest pirates in fights to prove to himself that he's good enough to beat the person that he hates the most, the person who had left him when he was a child, the person with eyes like a hawk.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

The waves lapped on the side of the ship as it's owner leaned on it's front, ever staring into the sea that laid ahead of him. He was a teenager at the age of eighteen, although he was hardened enough by the world he might as well be in his late twenties. His height was a little over six feet, while his body was lithe and muscular, but without those bulging muscles that are bigger than your head. He wore a green, unbuttoned vest that revealed a nice six-pack, semi circles were drawn all over it so that it looked like the whole thing was covered in scales, and on either side of the vest was the design of a dragon breathing fire on it. He also wore long pants that were slightly baggy at his ankles, they too were green and looked like they were covered in scales, they also had a dragon design on each leg, except instead of breathing fire it wound it's way up the leg so that the head rested just below the belt.

On his head he wore a bandana, not so that the whole thing covered the top of his head, just so that it went across his forehead. It was also green, and had designs of small dragons all over it. His hair, which was peaking over the bandana, was pitch black and spiked straight up roughly over four inches above the bandana. It had yellow highlights, but only enough so that they were noticeable but didn't distract from his black hair. There was also a few orange highlights mixed up in there, but only a few small highlights that were nestled against some yellows. The tips of his spiked hair were all colored red, completing the style to make his hair kind of look like fire.

Strapped to his back and his belt were two swords. On his belt was a katana, but the sheath wasn't like regular katanas. Instead of just one long, solid color thing, the whole thing was what looked like a dragon, long and snake like so that it could spread from both points of the thing, winding around the thing with what looked like a snake, it's head poking out at the end of it. Throughout the whole thing, though, there were small spaces here and there where you could catch a glint of the metal inside. There was no crosspiece, as the handle and sheath both went together to make the design. The blade itself was actually just like an ordinary blade, except for the dragon insignia sketched onto it, and was a good length, roughly around three feet.

The sword on his back, though, wasn't actually a katana, but a scimitar. You couldn't tell that at first, because all that was peaking out over his shoulder was the handle. The pommel of it was the head of a dragon which held a ruby sphere in it's mouth. The handle was just regular black, no designs on it except the gold inlay which curved around it up to the crosspiece, which was in the shape of two wings. Once out of the sheath, which was just like any other sheath, the scimitar's shape seemed perfect to the person that was now wielding it. It was one of the scimitars that had one of those points on it's upper back, the front of it curved just enough so that it wasn't to straight and the end drew back a little but not so much as so it bent back. The thickness seemed just right, it wasn't thin when starting out, and when it got to the level of the point at the back it got thicker, like they all do, and didn't just really thin out when going to the end of the blade. All in all, it was kind of Persian in shape, kind of, except the curved angles seemed more pointed and sharp, and there wasn't any kind of Persian design on it. However, there was a dragon insignia carved on it stretching out from the hilt to take up about half of the blade. It wasn't as long as the katana, but it wasn't short, either, roughly about half a foot shorter than the katana.

A lot of people had mocked him about using two completely different swords such as these for fighting, but they had all shut up once seeing him. He reasoned that each sword had its own advantages, and when not using those individual advantages he fought with the swords just like they were the same kind of blade. If he was using one sword he'd always have it in his right hand, since when alone that was his better. But whenever he used both, which was most of the time, he would have the katana in his right while the scimitar was in his left, mostly because he had always felt more of a kinship to the katana than with the scimitar, although he still loved it just as much as his other sword.

But, throughout all of the features that stuck out on him, the swords, the clothes, the hair, there was one thing that stood out most was his face, or, to be more specific, his eyes, his _hawk _eyes, which he had inherited from his father. His face also looked like his fathers, with the pointed chin, except he didn't have the beard or mustache and he was younger, it was actually quite handsome once you got past the weirdness, but not handsome enough that girls would stare at him wherever he went, that was just do to his odd style, and eyes, of course.

His name was Draconian Meathawk, son of the famed Hawkeye Meathawk, but a lot of people that new about him just called him Dragon. He didn't really encourage this, but he didn't hate it either, in fact he kind of liked it, it was something to distract people from the fact that he was Hawkeye's son. True, he was actually kind of proud of being the son of the famed Hawkeye, and he respected the man and his fighting skills. But everyone that truly knew Draconian knew the truth, he hated Hawkeye.

There were many different reasons that he hated the man, one of them was how people looked at him. Whenever people looked at him in his home town when he was a kid they would always say "Look, that's the son of Hawkeye Meathawk, I bet he's going to turn out just like him, an abomination." Well, they only said it while he was a kid and growing up, he had proved to most nowadays that he wasn't a monster, but still a few people said it. He new his father wasn't a monster, of course, but it was still the legend of him that started those comments. Another reason is one that still goes on today, whenever people saw his swordsmanship. "What did you expect, he's the son of Hawkeye." They would almost always say that, except for his friends and family at home. People would always think that his skill was a result of his father, they were wrong, he worked his ass off every day when he was young and still a good amount now to become what he was.

But, the thing that he hated about his father the most was the fact that he left, he'd left Draconian's mother as soon as he found out she was pregnant, or at least that's how it goes, but even if it's not true, he still left her. Draconian's mother, Diana, had loved Hawkeye, everyone knew it, just like everyone knew that Hawkeye had loved her, and he left, even if he didn't know she was pregnant he should have, there was a chance. He left just so he could go out and continue his pirating. Well, at least it wasn't major pirating, it was obvious to Draconian, Hawkeye wasn't like other pirates, he had honor, he didn't know if he attacked ships or not, maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but he didn't seem like the kind of man that would hurt innocent people, or at least, he wasn't before, not sure what he is nowadays.

Draconian had seen worse than what his mom had described of Hawkeye, in terms of attitude, that is, in his whole life he'd never seen someone better in terms of the blade. His town was a popular place for pirates to come by, not really for attack, mainly just to come and rest. Even when no one had ever actually attacked the town, everyone was always nervous when they had come by, since they'd never really behaved that well. Diana had worked as a waitress at one of the bars, like a good number of women did, since the town had a good number of them, mostly built for the pirates to keep them spread out. Most of the time they'd get drunk, good thing was they didn't really get that much worked up, a small bar fight was the most that had ever happened, and the damage wasn't really that big.

The thing that Draconian hated the most was when one of the pirates, either drunk or sober, it happened with both, would try to get a "peak" at his mom, that always set him off. Most of the time she just slapped the hand and they'd let go, but once in a while they were more insistent, of course even then they'd be easy to get off, someone else would usually come and get them off, someone sober and not a pirate. But there were two times that even that wouldn't do anything, they were so devoted, only one of them Draconian had saw, and the other he wasn't alive yet. The one he saw was when he was in his teens, sixteen if he remembered correctly, and he was already a good fighter. It was him who had broken it up. How? Lets' just say the man woke up a few hours later in the street and to this very day he probably still has a limp in his legs.

The other time, well, that was when his mother actually met Hawkeye, but it wasn't him being persistent. Diana had told Draconian that it was just with a few words and a look that had made the man back off from the famed swordsman. She thanked him afterwards, she said that she stuttered and blushed as she looked into his eyes, but not from fright. Diana had also told Draconian about how their loved blossomed, so to say. He was at the bar every day, he didn't talk that much but would always ask for her, if anyone tried to take a peak at her she wouldn't even have to slap him as Hawkeye would just stare them down. She called him here guardian hawk, just for laughs, it was later that they actually went on a date, if you could call it that, it was actually just them walking down the beach. Of course, he stayed for a few weeks more, but then left, leaving her behind and pregnant. She wasn't really that mad about it, but Draconian was, he wasn't there while Draconian grew up, never taught him anything, he was never a true father.

There was one man, though, that he had considered somewhat of a father figure. It wasn't any person in town, as most of them looked down on him, and the ones that didn't look down still didn't pay him that much attention. No, he was talking about a pirate who had come to his town only once but had stayed for a couple of months, he was probably one of the nicest pirates to roam the seas and was always able to laugh. That pirate's name was Shanks.

True, everyone loved Shanks and Draconian was sure that Shanks had behaved the exact same way he had with Draconian as he had with other kids, but still, the time that Shanks came to his little town was the best time of his life. Every morning Draconian would walk down to the bar where Shanks and his crew were laughing it up and having a some drinks, although Shanks never had enough to get drunk, he was polite that way, and Draconian would go sit up at the bar next to where Shanks was sitting and listen to a few of his tales. He wouldn't stick around too long though, because as much as he loved Shanks' tales, the hate for his real father would always be more. So after a few tales he would head and go back to his house where he had two kendo sticks and practice his sword skills somewhere outside where he was out of people's way.

He never really told Shanks of what he did after the tales, not because he wanted to keep it a secret, just because Shanks never asked. Well, about a week and a half later Shanks got curious enough to finally ask, so Draconian had taken his hand and lead him to his house, where he went up and got his kendo sticks, and then lead him to this little field in the forest that was close enough to the village he could get back in a quick time, then he showed him how he practiced. At first Shanks laughed, though he was quick to tell Draconian it wasn't at what he was doing, but at his kendo sticks. The thing was, one of them was a regular kendo, straight and long, while the other one was, well, damaged in a way. It was kind of warped from what Draconian believed was once water and now curved back a little, which is how he found it, there weren't any others he could use because when he asked the master at the towns small dojo, which only a few people actually attended, he had given him the only two left. As soon as he had gotten those, a lot of people had told him just to stick with the one kendo, learn how to fight with only a single sword. He shoved that thought out of his mind, he would prove to all the other people in his town that he would master this odd combination and teach them not to laugh at him.

Once he had told Shanks all of this, it drew out a small chuckle, though not one of spite Draconian soon realized as Shanks ruffled his hair and looked down at him with a smile. Draconian still remembered the words he said that day.

"_That's the spirit Draconian, you keep on practicing and show them all, and I bet one day you'll turn out just as good a swordsman as your father."_

Now, from what was told earlier about why Draconian hated his father you'd think that this would have built him into a rage. Well, you'd be wrong. This comment was different than all those other comments, you see, those other comments said he was good because of his father, while the one made by Shanks said that his skill would be because of all his practicing. It's complicating to explain but once you really think about it the difference is very clear.

Now, these weren't the only things that had Draconian looking up to Shanks. Every night, after Draconian was done training and eating dinner, he would go out of his house for about an hour to a high ridge next to his town that overlooked the docks and just stare out at the sea and the stars. A lot of those nights Shanks would come up and look out with him, they'd talk about the stars, they'd talk about the special things in life and other stuff of that nature. One night, Draconian remembered it as one of the nights before Shanks had set off, Shanks came up with him and didn't actually talk at all, or at least not immediately. After about a half hour of staring he finally talked, these were what Draconian remembered.

"_Do you want to know why I'm a pirate, Draconian? It's the adventure, it's feeling of the water spraying on your face, it's traveling the sea to find places like these where you can just stare out and wonder about what it's all about. To me, being a pirate doesn't mean ransacking villages and hurting innocent people, it mean traveling the world and following your dreams. I hope that someday you can feel what I've felt in life and go follow your dreams."_

And with that he had got up and went back down to where he and his crew were staying, leaving Draconian up on the ridge to think about what he had just heard. After staring out at the sea for a while longer he too had got up and headed back down to his house.

Shanks had left a few days later with a big send off from the town and especially from Draconian and his mom. Shanks didn't really do anything like shake anybody's hand, since the people he had really gotten to know were only Draconian and his mom. So, with a tip of his hat to Diana and a ruffle of Draconian's hair, Shanks had set off, waving back at the town as Draconian and a few others waved back.

Looking back, Draconian recognized Shanks as the person that had made him what he was today, but he wasn't just talking about a determined swordsman and adventurer, oh no, if it wasn't for Shanks, Draconian would have never learned about one of the most magnificent things in all the world, kursed fruit.

You see, Shanks was the person who had told him about what a kursed fruit was, and what it did. He had talked about all the different ones, not the specifics like their names and what each individual ones did, just the fact that there was a wide variety. Shanks had even drawn a picture of one he had seen before, he said it was one that an old friend of his had eaten. It looked exactly like a pineapple, except it was all red, Shanks said it was a Chop-Chop fruit, and told Draconian it allowed a person's body parts to come off, like their hand or head or any other section of their body. These fruit did come with a price, though, as Shanks soon told Draconian, even if they did give you powers, you could never swim again. Draconian asked why, only to be told it was said that the sea refused you and wouldn't let you swim or something like that. Some people would call it a fair trade, while other people, like Shanks, were wary of the whole thing, Draconian was with the first group, he wasn't that interested in swimming anyway.

Of course, Shanks never really thought that Draconian would ever actually find a kursed fruit, he'd gone through his whole life himself and had only seen one. But he was wrong, dead wrong, Draconian had found a kursed fruit and eaten all of it, and to this day he hadn't regretted a single bite. He had no real idea which fruit this one was called, but he didn't really care, as long as it had given him something, which it had, now Draconian could control fire, which was one of the reasons that some people called him dragon. How he found the fruit isn't really that important right now, that's a story for a different time.

Now, the reason that he wanted the fruit was pretty obvious, so that one day hew could use it to defeat his father in a fight. A lot of people mocked hi because of that, just because he has a kursed fruit doesn't mean he can beat Hawkeye, and they were right, Draconian knew that, just as well as he also knew it wasn't what you had, but how you used it, and he used his powers damn well in conjunction with his already great sword skills. He never really just shot fire out, mostly what he did was cover his swords or a part of his body in the flame and he'd use it to boost his attacks, of course that doesn't mean he still didn't throw fireballs, he did that when he felt it would help, like when taking out cannons.

Finally, Draconian stepped down from the front of his ship and started to walk towards his sails to see how they were doing. It was a magnificent ship, or at least it was to Draconian. It wasn't as big as regular ships that sported a whole crew of people, but it wasn't as small as those smaller "scout" ships as he called them that went out from the main ship to gather stuff or other tasks. So, it was big enough a ship that it got noticed, but it was small enough so that it only needed him to guide, and that doesn't mean one person, it means him. While he was a kid he had learned how to navigate from a few older pirates that had come to his town and actually stayed, making him really good at it, he wasn't a master, he was sure at that, but he wasn't a novice either. The thing that he really liked about the top of his ship was the fact that there wasn't a cabin there or any step leading up to a higher level, it was just a flat area only interrupted by the mast. One of the things that he loved doing was just sprawling out on the deck and looking up in the sky at the birds and clouds overhead, always wondering if this is what Shanks meant about being a pirate.

Of course, there was a cabin, it just wasn't on top, the cabin was below the top deck, the stairs were concealed under a square of the floorboards that was in the middle of the ship. The stairs actually broke off into two baths after a while down, one leading to where Draconian slept, and one leading to where he kept the food and supplies. But just because it was below the deck doesn't mean that there wasn't any light, there were a couple of portholes cut on each side of the ship so that they could shed light into the cabin, and at night if it was too dark he had many candles around the room he would light up.

The cabin wasn't the only thing that was different than other ships, the railings that went around the ship were a little bit taller than the railings on other ships, this way there was less of a chance that he would fall off. He could still see and lean over the railings, of course, he didn't want to get rid of that feature. Also, just in case he did fall, there were handles all around the sides of the ship, but only going about halfway down, he didn't want other people getting on his ship. The sails must've been the only thing on the ship that were exactly like others, he had two of them, a big one and a small one, and the two posts that stood up from the deck. He wasn't really sure at first about an insignia for a flag, but after a while he decided heck, why not? He didn't make it himself, of course, he asked someone in one of the towns that he stopped at for supplies to draw it for him, since he had heard that the person was good at drawing. Once it was done Draconian had immediately hung it up on his main sail so that everyone who looked could see it. Drawn on the flag was a dragon's skeleton, and not just the skull, it was drawn so that it looked like the dragon was floating, the tail of it was pointed down as the dragon flew upright, the claws were tucked in as the wings crossed over it's exposed chest, and the skull head was seen above them, there were even some flames on it for effect.

Now, besides the flag that was the symbol of your ship, there was one more thing that would tell others what you were all about, and that was the carving at the front of it, which for this ship was of course a dragon. It was beautifully carved, each scale shown and almost glistened in the sun, the neck stretched out to it's horned head, which had it's mouth slightly agape as fire curled around it. But this wasn't carved fire, it was real, inside the mouth was a flat bowl, almost impossible to see, which had a fire lit up in it. Usually you might worry about the ship catching on fire, but two factors kept it from that, one was the fact that Draconian himself lit the fire whenever it would die out, and he kept it to as low a heat as possible, and the other was that the head of the dragon was actually made out of not wood but another substance that wouldn't catch fire, he wasn't sure what it was because the person who had made it for him never really told him. The whole thing was the thing that he loved the most on his ship, even more than the flag.

Now, the only thing left about the ship was it's name. Draconian had thought a long time about the name, since of all things it was the real heart of the ship. After about a day of thinking he had finally realized the perfect name, and instead of painting it on the side he had burned it, that way it would stay on longer instead of peeling off, and if it did somehow come off he could easily do it again. He named it Diana, after his mother.

After checking the sails to make sure that nothing was wrong, Draconian then decided to head to the middle and lay down to look at the beautiful sky. As he put his hands behind his head he brushed against the sword on his back. This put a smile on his face as he remembered how he had gotten his swords. It's impossible to say which one of them was more special to him in the way that he got them, with his katana he had saved his money up for years starting when he was a kid. Finally, when he was a teenager, around fifteen or sixteen, he forgets that stuff easily, he had wandered out to the blacksmith to see if he had any swords. Unfortunately for him, there weren't any katanas, and he refused to get any other sword. The blacksmith told him of one of the towns close by, but it would take around a week to walk there, and didn't advise him to go there. Draconian didn't care, though, and he gathered up his supplies and walked all the way to the town, his stomach growling because he hadn't packed enough food. He didn't buy any food, though, because he needed all his money to buy that one special sword. Once he had found the blacksmith, he had asked for a katana and showed him his money. He didn't have one either, but he promised to make him one, a special one, since he could tell all the trouble that the kid had gone through to get it.

The blacksmith even invited him to dinner that night, so that they could talk. Draconian was confused at first, until the dinner actually started. They had eaten in silence, Draconian almost shoveling food into his hungry belly, and the blacksmith chuckling as he watched his antics. He was an old man, actually, with gray hair, but you could see he still had the exuberance of his youth. After dinner he had inquired about Draconian's father, Hawkeye. Draconian was silent then, only after some urging telling the blacksmith not of his father, but for some uncontrolled reason telling him about how he was looked at by everyone in his town and how much he trained to become a good swordsman and prove to everybody it wasn't his father but him and how long he saved his money to finally buy a sword. The blacksmith had took all this in, silent the whole time, once he was done he had told Draconian to come with him. They walked over to a case, the blacksmith had opened it up to reveal the inside covered in satin and in the middle was a katana, the blacksmith then handed the katana to him, exclaiming that it was an heirloom of his family and he had no one to give it to, and Draconian had earned it, it was the same one that he wore today. A few days later the blacksmith had also given him the scimitar, which he had made in exchange for the money. So, one sword he had saved up all his money and traveled for a week to finally get, while the other was passed down to him in hopes that he would make something of himself and it.

After a while of staring up at the sky and remembering all that had happened in his life, Draconian started to get weary and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

Draconian slowly woke up to voices, they weren't really that close, so they couldn't actually be on his ship, or at least not yet, but they weren't that far, if he was to guess he'd say they were on a ship next to his. Slowly he got up, stretching his back as he did so, and traveled over to the side of the ship he was hearing voices. The two voices were being accompanied by two people, a woman and a man. They were standing on a boat smaller than his, with only a single sail that had hearts going over it. The woman was small and squat, or should he say small and fat. She was dressed in this red and blue kind of thing that seemed to be worn for something fancy, but she also had a red hat on her head, cowboy style, if he wasn't mistaken. Her face was stretched wide and her lips were covered in lipstick. She was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. The man behind her was just dressed in regular sailing clothes and had a tan and a cutlass at his waist, nothing really special, the woman must have been the leader, due mostly to the fact the giant, spike covered club that she held beside her. It was as tall as she was, which technically wasn't saying that much, but it was still big.

"Oh, suck it up, I bet there isn't even anyone on that thing, we called out for ten whole minutes and nothing. Just climb aboard and we can take the thing." The woman aggressively spoke to the other man, her accent was kind of Cajun, making you automatically think of alligators.

"But, I'm not sure, boss, I mean, who would leave a ship like this abandoned out in the sea."

"They were probably too stupid and lost it or fell off of the side, who cares anyway, it's mine now, and if there _is _anyone aboard I'll beat them senseless. Oh, just move out of the way, I'll go first." With that, she took a grappling hook, tow, actually, to help support her, and threw it on the rails. "Get behind me and push to help me get up."

Draconian moved away from the rail and went a little farther back so that they didn't see him, he wanted them to have a surprise when they got on board. As the hooks on the side of his ship tightened Draconian let his hand move down to his katana, but decided against it as it seemed he might not actually need it against these two, but still, he put it on the handle, just in case. He gritted his teeth as the grappling hooks started to puncture into the railing and bend them a little, hoping she got here soon otherwise he'd lose a section of railing. Finally, after a minute or two of worrying, he saw her fat hand grasp the side of the rail as she pulled herself up, the club between her teeth so that she could use both hands to help climb. At first she didn't notice him, until he finally spoke up.

"And _what _are you doing on my ship?" His tone was a combination of curious and threatening.

"You're ship, hah, this is my ship now, and where were you when we were calling out?"

"Sleeping." He had a bored expression on his face.

"Really, well I hope you liked it, because I'm going to put you in permanent sleep." With that, she rushed forward with her raised club ready to swing.

Without any change in mood, Draconian quickly turned around and did a back flip so that he landed on the back of her shoulders. He then pushed off again, using her momentum to send her toppling forward. While in midair he turned around and kicked out, connecting with the other guy who was climbing right behind his leader and sending him falling back down to land hard on the ship below.

Draconian turned back around to where the woman was getting back up. "Now, there are three options here, one is that you give up and go away. The second is that you swing at me while I keep dodging, hit you with some regular punches and kicks to draw the whole thing, only at the end to knock you unconscious. Or we could do the third, where I just take you out in a few seconds."

As he was saying this, the woman rushed forward and swung down with her club, only to miss as Draconian sidestepped her, the impact made that part of the duck buckle.

"Well, I'm guessing you aren't choosing my first option. So we can either do this the fast way or the fun way."

"Don't you mean the hard way?" She swung again, this time sideways, only to be dodged as Draconian jumped over her and the club.

"What's so hard about it?" He jumped a little to the side as her club came smashing down on the deck.

"Haven't you been paying attention to what my club's been doing to your deck?" She swung again once more, only to have Draconian easily dodge again.

"Hmm, you may be ugly but you have a point." He readied himself for a dodge, only to see that she didn't move.

"Ugly, you're calling me _ugly_!" With a shout she swung her club again, this time a little faster than she had before, but it didn't really matter as Draconian easily dodged once more. This time when it hit the deck it almost created a hole.

"I think I should probably end this quickly for the sake of my ship." This time he did something different as she swung her club. As soon as he ducked into the crouch he quickly turned around, his right foot catching on fire. It's too bad that she didn't see this, otherwise there was a good chance she would have run away, but she didn't have any chance to as Draconian shouted out.

"Dragon Kick!"

His foot snapped out of his crouched position and slammed into the woman's gut, the result actually sending her flying over the edge of the ship and then some, finally landing a long distance away with a big splash.

Draconian leaned down, examining the deck of his ship, once done he sighed. "I'm going to have to get these repaired, I can't take any chances when heading near the Grand Line. There should be a town close by."

The Grand Line was indeed where he was headed, but he wasn't there for the treasure, he didn't give a shit about that, he was going to the grand line to finally face his father after so many years, to finally fight the famed Hawkeye Meathawk.

* * *

For the people that have read my other stories yes, I'm finally back on FanFiction. I've decided that while I write my other story with Anters on FictionPress, I should write my other story when I have breaks. In case there are some of you who haven't read my other stories I am dragonofraven, and it is my honor to write this for you. Usually I would have wrote the third books in my Teen Titans series, but I really wanted to get this story up, or at least start getting it up. I've had this idea for quite a while now, and here's what you should expect. Each chapter there is going to be a fight scene between Draconian and one of the major pirates in the series, I'm going right down the line too. At first it'll just be memories, but later on it'll be "present day," as in I'm writing it not as a flashback but in the here and now, in the story I mean. If you like Teen Titans please read my other stories, they aren't that good at first but the do get better in quality later on. So, one question, how do you like my character? I can't wait to write the fight scenes in other chapters, if I do say so myself I am actually a pretty good fight scene writer. Well, I can't really think of much else to talk about, so Read and Review! 


	2. Circus Fruits

Circus Fruits

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

Okay, before I start this off, I'd like to apologize to all the people reading this, I spelled Hawkeye's last name incorrectly, it's Mihawk, not Meathawk, I'm sorry. I also accidentally spelled Cursed Fruit with a k, I was a little confused with how they said it on the show I thought it might be k, again, I'm sorry. Now on to the chapter! Oh, and there's going to be a line where he looks back into his past, it should be obvious which one it is, but I'll label it just in case, but only for this chapter.

* * *

Draconian's back leaned against the mast so that he was laying in the shade as he looked over the map of the small section of world he was in, trying to find where he was. "Okaaay, when I fell asleep I was around here," he put his finger on a small section of drawn water. "Judging by the direction the wind was and how long I probably slept, I should be..." his finger traveled across the map until finally stopping a few inches from where it originally was. "Here."

"Now," he looked around the map. "Dry land is closest to the east of where I am, and that should be that way." He pointed to the left side of his ship, since he was sailing south. "Now all that I really need to do is find a town, or should I say choose a town, there's a good number of them."

He drew his finger down the side of the map, going over the names of each town in his head and trying to remember all that he could about each, which wasn't really that much. For some odd reason, though, the names seemed familiar to him, he didn't know why but it kept nagging at the back of his head. That was, of course, until his finger landed on a specific name.

Joyous laughter erupted from Draconian's mouth as he stared at the town. "I cannot believe that I didn't recognize this area immediately, I've been gone for only about a year and already I forget. Well, I know where I'm sailing."

With that, Draconian got up and headed around to slightly change the sail so that now the ship slightly turned to the left so that it sailed to the mainland, where his home town was.

* * *

Diana traveled over to one of the busiest tables of the day, carefully carrying a tray laden with drinks. She had been working at the bar for most of her life, trying to make a living. She was a very kind person at heart and would always try to make conversation with the people that came here, well, the decent people, at least. Despite being in her late thirties she still looked almost as beautiful as the day she met Hawkeye Mihawk. Her long black hair flowed down to her slim waist, not as shiny as it used to be but still better than anyone else in the town. She was about five and a half feet tall with an almost petite body. Her face looked just as beautiful as it had been before, more like a mature version of her original beauty than an older version. Her eyes had remained the same, though, they were a deep blue that were almost always full of love when she had her child, Draconian, living with her. Nowadays they weren't filled with that, but were still full of happiness, she wasn't really lonely after her son left, she still had the town, and it's Draconian didn't actually run away.

Right now she was humming a little tune that had popped into her head as she waited the tables, easily able to hear herself over the noise. The noise went through every single part of the bar, but you could easily hold an actual conversation with someone without having to shout. It was almost always like this in the morning and early afternoon, although it was pretty rowdy at night, good thing for her that nowadays she wasn't assigned the night shift, but she did have to help with it whenever there was a really big crowd.

While she traveled her way back to the counter, still humming that little song stuck in her head, she heard the ringing of the bell as the door opened. To tell you the truth this meant nothing to her as people were always coming in, but she looked over as was her habit, in case it was somebody she could talk to. The person who entered was definitely not who she was expecting, but she still called out in her cheery voice.

"Hi, Joe, I'm surprised to see you here," she talked while she mended her way to the graying man. "You don't usually go to bars, did you have a really bad day?"

"No, not really, actually it was a pretty good day, but that's not why I'm here. There's a new ship sailing into the port right now."

She shrugged. "So, that happens almost every day, what's so special about today?"

"You'll see, just come on down to the place with me, I promise you'll like it."

"Okay, okay." She let out a sigh. "I know you're not going to let me back out on this, let me just tell my supervisor about it, I think everyone's got their drinks anyway." She then headed to the back of the place and returned a minute later, taking off her apron as she did so. "Let's go."

It was a pretty short walk, due mostly to the fact that she worked in the bar that was closest to where the ships docked, which is what made it the most popular bar in town. When they got close, Diana could make out what had to be the ship that Joe had mentioned, since it was the only one actually traveling in. It was actually a fair distance away, she guessed it would take around five to ten minutes for it to actually get to shore. At first it didn't really look that special, she couldn't see anything that would make her want to actually see this. True, the dragon carving on it's front was beautiful, but it wasn't that special, she could have seen it later, and the ship wasn't even that big.

But then she looked up at the person perched on the back of the dragon's head, staring out at the town with a huge grin on his face. Diana's face lit up in joy as she saw her son, his clothes billowing in the wind, his hand over his eyes to help shield them from the sun and so that he could see the far bank clearer. A faint "whoop" was heard as Draconian obviously shouted in joy, either from seeing the town or, more likely, spotting his mother. Everyone that stood at the port, which wasn't really much, stayed to watch until the ship finally pulled in. Most people just stood where they originally were, except of course Diana, who ran over to get closer to the ship.

Instead of climbing off of the ship or laying down a kind of plank to help him get off, Draconian launched himself off of the dragon head upon seeing his mother. His body spun through the air as it turned so that he went head over heels through the air once, like an acrobat. He landed right behind his slightly startled mother, wrapping his arms tightly around her in a hug, a huge smile on his face. "Gotcha."

Diana laughed along with her son, squirming a little as he placed kiss after kiss along her cheek. She squeezed his arms with her hands, partly to hug him back, and partly to try and move them. "I get it, get it, let go of me."

"Never." He stopped kissing her cheeks, only to hug her tighter.

"Ugh, come on, I'm not as strong as those pirates that are still in my bar, which I should get back to soon."

Draconian's face featured mock shock. "You mean you'd rather spend the day in a bar full of sweaty men than spend time with your son who's just come back after a year?"

"Well, at least in the bar I won't get squeezed to death."

"You're just complaining because you're old." Draconian laughed, only to have is mother move her hand up and twap him in the nose playfully, which only made both him and her laugh. Finally he let go of her, only to go heading back to his ship. "I'll be right back, I have to tie her down."

Once done, he returned to his mother's side and walked with her back to the bar. She turned her head to him while they walked and started conversation. "So, how have you been doing while you were away?"

A chuckle came to his lips. "I should be asking how you've been, god knows you can't survive here without me."

This earned him another playful twap on his nose. "Hey, if I can survive _with _you I can easily do it without. Besides, I asked you the question first."

"I've been doing fine, taken down a good number of pirates. I've gotten a lot better with my sword skills and controlling my Cursed Fruit powers."

A chuckle had come to his mother's lips like his before. "I still remember the day that you had eaten that fruit, heck, the whole town still remembers it," she leaned over and gave him one of those playful pushes, a smile on her face, "hero."

"As do I, mom," he put his arm around her shoulders as they neared the bar, "as do I."

* * *

**One year ago...**

It started off just like any other normal day, Draconian woke up to a bright morning and put on his signature clothes, strapping on both of his swords as he did so. He didn't really do this for protection, it was more for the show, and besides, he'd gone through a lot to get these swords, he's always going to carry them around. Once dressed he headed downstairs and out the door, traveling to the bar that his mom worked, she had always got up before him because of the time she had to work. When he entered the bar he went to sit in a chair at the counter, ordering a drink and some eggs and sausage, like he did every morning. There were two reasons that he came at the bar, one was to talk to some of the pirates, it was interesting hearing the tales, the other was to watch out for his mother. True, there was a good chance that no one else would try and get too serious with her like that one time, but you could never be too safe. He would have loved to stay all day, but once it got to around noon he would head out and go to the one area in the forest to train.

Well, he wasn't able to do it this day.

As soon as he left the bar and started to head towards the forest, he stopped as one of the incoming ships distracted him. It was already docked, and people were heading out, there were two things different about it, though. One was the fact that all of the crew were gathering up in front of their boat, this wasn't usually odd, but this time it seemed, more organized. The second had to be the flag, it was the usual skull, but it had a big red dot in where the nose was, probably one of those clown noses. The town that he lived in did once in a while get some kind of strange pirates, but this was stranger than any others, and Draconian could have sworn he heard something about a clown pirate, dangerous he had heard.

Draconian turned around from where he was going and headed towards where the ship was docked, but decided to keep close to the wall, he didn't know why but he felt he should do something like this. Other people from the town had started to slowly gather at the site, some of them with wide eyes, maybe they had heard about this guy. When it looked like a good number of people had come to see what was going on, the ranks of pirates split in the middle to let someone through.

Draconian's sight was blocked by one person in front of him, so he crept a little closer, trying to get a better view. His sight was blocked even more, though, as more people came, reacting from the voice of someone speaking, probably the person that the pirates had let through.

"People of this town, my name is Buggy the Clown and I have decided to take over your precious little village. If I were you I wouldn't try and put up a defense."

Now, that had definitely jarred something within Draconian, he had heard of Buggy, although he didn't know he was a clown. It was rumored that he had the powers of a Cursed Fruit. This might be the best time to prove himself to everyone, to show them that he wasn't just some bi-product of Mihawk. Instead of trying to get a better view of what was happening up front, Draconian headed in an alleyway between the bar and a store. He jumped up and pushed off one wall, turning around and pushing off the other as soon as he hit it, continuing this until he got to the top of the roof. He then continued by jumping from roof to roof until he was on the corner of the roof closest to where Buggy and his crew was, going down low so as not to be seen as he looked on at the assembled.

They all seemed like a regular crew, nothing really clownish about any of them, but Buggy, let's just say if he wasn't in front of them all and deep in the crowd you could tell him apart. He didn't actually wear clown make-up, but he did have two crossed bones painted on his forehead and a blue streak, like a painted on scar, over each eye, he also wore one of those clown noses and had on the red lipstick, which contrasted greatly with his teeth, which were shown in a wide, evil smile that took up his whole mouth, it looked like he always did this. He had blue hair, which barely peaked out of the corners of his orange hat, which was in the style of one of those pirates that little kids imagined, and it had a skull and crossbones drawn in the middle, the eye sockets seeming a little bigger, but he did have some hair coming up out of the two ends and falling down to hang over the sides. The odd thing about his clothing to Draconian was that he wore a coat over his shoulders, having it pretty close so that it didn't fall off, since he didn't put his hands through the sleeves. It was orange and the opening down the middle was covered in some kind of white fluff, like fake animal hair. It also had one of those shoulder things you might see on people in a marching band, with yellow tassels connected to a green shoulder piece. Finally, he wore a purple scarf with the end pulled out a little in front, and his shirt and pants were just like any other pirate's.

"Now, how are we going to do this?" Buggy clapped his hands together. "Are you going to surrender and let us take over your town, or am I going to have to take it over by force." Slowly he pulled out a knife to have it waggle before him. "I'm sure you'll make the right choice."

At first the town looked slightly nervous, but one by one each person straightened up to face Buggy and his crew, it also helped that the pirates from the bars filtered out to stand with the towns people. This made Buggy stroke his chin. "Hmm, looks like you want to do this the hard way, good, I just found a little something while sailing that I've been dying to try, and even if you're stronger than you look, a well placed Buggy ball should make you all think twice about sticking up to us." With that, Buggy reached inside his coat and pulled something out.

Upon seeing what it was, most people gasped, others had their eyes widen, but a few just looked on confused as to what it was they were seeing. Draconian, well, his jaw just dropped, he was speechless, because what Buggy was holding in his hand was what could only be a Cursed Fruit.

Buggy laughed. "Now, it's true that I already have Cursed Fruit powers, but coming up on this, I can't help but want to have two powers, and there's nothing really for me to lose, the other one I've already eaten has prevented me from swimming, this power is just an added bonus. I'm not completely sure what it can do, but I don't really care, a power is a power, and even the oddest ones are great." With that, he started to lift the fruit to his lips.

Draconian leaped from the roof, spinning a little in the process, and landed in a crouch in front of the crowd of towns people and pirates, which had slightly shocked everyone, seeing as he came from nowhere, and even stopped Buggy from eating the fruit as he stared at the person who had just come flying in. Still in the crouched position, Draconian's voice drifted over the dock where everyone was, almost sending a shiver through a few people's spines. "Get away from my town, now."

Buggy was unaffected, though, as he just stared at the odd figure before him, the Cursed Fruit seemingly forgotten in his hand. "And who are you to make me?"

Draconian stood up, raising his head as he did so to stare at Buggy, revealing his eyes. "My name is Draconian Mihawk, son of Hawkeye Mihawk."

A slight shiver went down Buggy's spine as he heard this and looked into his eyes, but he straightened back up after a second and stared at the young Mihawk. "Well, it doesn't matter who your father is, soon I'm going to have two Cursed Fruit powers, something that no known person has had before, and I'll be stronger than anyone alive, including Mihawk!" With that, he once again raised the fruit to his lips.

"Anyone who thinks they can beay a person, especially my father, just because they have powers is an arrogant fool." He muttered under his breath. Suddenly, before Buggy could even get the thing close to his lips, Draconian whipped out his katana and threw it like a spear towards the fruit. It traveled at an incredible speed, hitting the fruit so fast that Buggy didn't even see it coming. As it shot off the fruit, now impaled, stuck onto the blade to follow it as it hit the side of Buggy's ship.

At first Buggy was silent as everything had gone by so fast, but soon he turned around to look at the ship, barking out at his crew. "Get my fruit!"

Draconian was already off, though, even before Buggy had reacted. He drew his scimitar out, holding it in his right hand, as he ran straight towards Buggy, knowing that the quickest way to get to the fruit would be through him. Once he was close, Draconian slashed the sword out at an incredible speed towards Buggy's midsection. He hit, but once the sword completed it's slash, the upper body that was the result of the cut went up and Draconian, instead of heading around, just pushed the legs aside to keep on heading to the sword. The odd thing was, other than how the body was disconnected, there wasn't actually any blood, and it somehow just didn't all feel right. But he couldn't worry about that now, it was finally his chance to get a Cursed Fruit.

All of the crew of Buggy's ship that were near where Draconian's sword had landed were already going for the katana, and to Draconian they were dangerously close, he would not give up his only chance to have a cursed fruit. Once he got close enough to where his sword was, close enough being the "outskirts" of the solid mass of bodies that were trying to grab it, Draconian launched himself into the air, flying towards the direction his sword was. His legs went out to his side, like he was doing a split.

"Dragon Hurricane!"

As he was flying through the air he started to spin his body, his feet continuously going around in circles as they hit pirate after pirate, sending them flying back as his path became a little more clearer. He turned his body a little to the side, knocking aside more pirates in the process. Once he was halfway there from where he had originally launched off, gravity had taken over and his body went down. But still he didn't stop, he landed on his left foot, his right foot still out and spinning, knocking people around him in a circle. He used the momentum from this to launch himself one more time at the direction of where his sword was. After smacking many pirates in the head or abs, he was finally able to clear a kind of path, leading to the fruit. It was almost too late, as right now somebody was tugging at the sword, trying to get it out. Draconian jumped forward, this time not spinning through the air but still smacking anyone who got near him with a well placed kick. Once he got to where his sword and the fruit was, he grabbed the person tugging at it by the scruff of the neck and threw him into some other crew members, knocking them all down.

But he still wasn't able to get the fruit, as he didn't have enough time from all the people coming at him. He soon had the cure for that, though, as he whipped his sword out to slash at the first person near him. That didn't stop them, however, as they all came on harder, this time with swords, little good that did. Draconian's slashes blocked every single attack made by one of the pirates as he continually spun around to defend from all sides, he was even able to get in some of his slashes too, which were never blocked. Finally they all jumped forward at once, only to have all of their blades blocked as Draconian was able to lock his sword with all of theirs so that no one was able to move until he moved his own blade. He was finally where he wanted to be as shoved everyone else back with his scimitar as he spun around, grabbing his sword with the Cursed Fruit hanging on it, and as he spun back to face everyone he bit down.

It tasted horrible, but he didn't care, he bit down again before he had even swallowed the first bite, and he bit down again and again, rotating his sword so that he could eat every part of it, making sure that he would get the power. Juice ran down his chin as he chewed, and everyone just stared at him as he continually attacked it until there was nothing left but a little bit of scrap on the sword, which he flicked into the sea. And there he stood, panting from the speed at which he ate and by how much he had eaten in that time, a kind of determination in his eyes and juice from the fruit running down his chin and blade.

"NOOOOO!" Buggy's voice rang out through the whole port they were in. "How _dare _you eat my Cursed Fruit! How _dare _you!"

Draconian raised his head to stare at Buggy, his eyes full of fire as he wiped the juice from his face, although that might have just been a reflection of his hand, which had suddenly burst into flame, along with his feet and other hand. Draconian shouted in alarm, springing back in surprise as he tried to beat them out on his shirt. His face was filled with alarm for a few seconds until it slowly turned to realization as he noticed that he couldn't actually feel the fire, yet wherever he stepped with his burning feet there was smoke marks. He stared at his flame covered hands in amazement, which still held his swords, almost oblivious to everything else around him.

"KILL HIM! Make him suffer for eating my fruit!"

Two distinct forms moved as the rest of the crew that wasn't knocked out by Draconian moved aside, revealing a giant lion that was ridden by a man with a short-cut, curly lion's mane hairdo, and a man on a unicycle with dark blue hair and holding a cutlass. The man on the unicycle rode over to a building where he remarkably was able to ride up it, obtaining an amazing height, and coming down towards Draconian, his cutlass pointed straight down so that it would hit first.

It was only a few seconds that Draconian heard Buggy screaming that he tore his attention away from his hands and up to the two attackers, mainly on the unicycle guy, since the lion was pretty far away. When he looked, the guy on the unicycle was already falling straight towards him. Now, he could have dodged, but that just wasn't the kind of thing he did. Draconian brought up his scimitar, spinning it in a wheel pattern so fast it was a blur, it was positioned so that when the unicycle hit, that's what it would be hitting.

"Dragon Whirlwind!"

Not only did it spin fast, but the flame that was covering Draconian's hands had crept up to cover his sword, creating an even wider circle of flame. The guy on the unicycle finally hit, only to have his sword smashed away to the far side from the whirling blades and to have the bottom of the unicycle destroyed from the heat and blade. In the process, some kind of backlash from the attack sent the guy a little bit back up into the air.

Draconian reversed his grip on the scimitar and quickly slammed the point into the ground so that it would stay there and put both of his hands on the handle of his katana, quickly drawing it down and to his side as the flame from his hands spread to every part of the blade.

"Dragon Blitz!"

Draconian leapt up so that he was even with the guy, slashing the sword upwards as he did so, not only drawing a big cut along the man's body but also hitting him with a blast of fire, which immediately knocked him to the ground and out of the fight.

Once he landed back down, Draconian then turned to where the giant lion was, only to see that it was much closer than he had anticipated. It was already almost to him, so Draconian jumped off the ground faster than he usually would because of desperation. Originally he probably would have tried to land on the back, taking out the guy riding it first then it, but because of his desperation and quickness, the fire at his feet had blasted the ground, sending him up higher than he had ever actually jumped before, until he was up twice the size of the biggest ship in the harbor, which was Buggy's. Looking below, he could barely make out the man on the beast's back jumping off as the beast itself grabbed onto the top of the building and launched up at Draconian, right as he was falling down. Determined to use this to his advantage, Draconian raised his right foot so that it was held straight up and over his head, the flame increasing as it somehow knew what he was doing and acting to his will. It didn't look like he and the lion would cross paths at first, it looked like the lion would fall back down before it could happen, until the fire on Draconian's right foot blasted upwards, speeding him down even more towards the beast.

"Dragon Meteor!"

Once they crossed Draconian slammed his foot down, right onto the lion's face, sending it right back down at an incredible speed to slam right into the ground, raising some dust and creating a small crater where it hit. Draconian then gingerly tried to control the fire in his feet, luckily able to blast a few times when he got near the ground so that he slowed down enough so as not to get hurt by the fall. The man that was originally on top of the beast was now kneeling beside it, until, of course, Draconian came over and slammed his flaming foot into his chest, sending him smashing into the wall of a nearby store.

For a while everything was silent as people just stared, contemplating what all just happened. All that was heard was the deep breaths of Draconian as he tried to center his mind and gain control of his powers. After a few seconds he stared at his hands, mind finally centered as he tried to find the source of his powers. Finally, the flames on his hands died down, along with the ones on his feet.

Buggy stalked over to where Draconian was now standing, growls continually escaping from his lips in anger as he muttered. "If you can't get something done right then you have to do it yourself."

Draconian looked up from his hands as he heard Buggy approach, finally curious about what had happened earlier. "So what the hell is up with you."

This made Buggy stop in confusion. "What?"

"I cut you earlier and your top half..." he raised his hands upwards and shook them, indicating Buggy's body flying.

"Boy, you just took out my two best after eating my precious Cursed Fruit, and _now_ is the time you ask that!"

"Well, it doesn't really matter when I ask since I'm going to beat your ass anyways."

Buggy growled. "So that's how you want it, huh? Well, I might as well tell you, it won't make much of a difference anyways. I have eaten the Chop-chop fruit, which gives me the power to..."

"I know what it does," Draconian interrupted, "I was told by a friend of mine, don't know if you've heard of him, his name is Shanks."

Buggy's eye widened. "Shanks! That stupid bastard!"

Draconian was a little surprised. "What the..."

"Don't talk to me about that poor excuse for a pirate, I hate him!"

"What's wrong, one day he kicked your ass or something?"

"I'm not telling you the story, but let me just say that pirate doesn't even deserve to lick my shoes!"

Draconian's eyes narrowed in anger as his swords once again caught on fire, except this time it was just the blades instead of the whole sword, and for some odd reason his hands didn't even flame up. He then spoke through gritted teeth. "How about we just start this fight?"

"Fine by me, boy." Knives suddenly appeared in Buggy's gloved hands as he ran forward towards Draconian, mouth parted in a hysterical laughter.

Draconian leapt forward, flaming swords ahead of him, as he met Buggy head on. He swept his scimitar so that it hit the daggers, carrying them to the side so that they were for the moment out of the fight. His katana slashed down towards his legs, cutting through the waist, only to have the legs disconnect from the main body as it floated higher up. He then spun his body, bringing his scimitar in to slash at Buggy's head, but missing as it flew off the body, laughing all the while. But cutting it wasn't his goal, as he completed his spin, bringing his left foot up, which was now flaming, to slam into Buggy's floating midsection, sending it sailing back as the legs stayed where they were.

The head floated to the body, slightly grimacing from the blow. "Nice kick, boy, but you still need to learn to always count your cards!" The legs kicked out, only to be caught as Draconian let go of his katana and grabbed the kicking leg, swinging it around and slamming it back towards Buggy. He then picked his katana back up and faced Buggy while he connected his whole body back together.

Buggy then launched himself forward again, or so it looked. While running he jumped into the air, hands stretched out. To Draconian it looked like he was going to try to stab him with all those daggers, which was stupid since he failed the first time. He was taken aback, though, as Buggy's hands disconnected from his body and flew at Draconian.

He quickly dodged the first one, but with the second one he had to bring his scimitar in to knock it off to the side. Once landing on the ground, it floated back to Buggy's hand where he stood grinning that big grin of his. "Didn't expect that, now, did ya?"

"Don't get all high on yourself, it didn't even work." Buggy just grinned even wider, confusing Draconian, until he looked at Buggy's hands, or hand, as only one returned. Draconian whipped around to see the other hand flying right at him. He quickly ducked back, slashing up with his katana to send it flying overhead. He then brought his scimitar up and smacked the thing with the flat side of the flaming blade. It then returned to Buggy, who shook his hand as he received it.

"Ooh, oh you'll pay for that." He then brought both of his hands up over his head and slammed them down, releasing what seemed to be a big whirling storm of daggers. The thing was about as tall as Draconian was, and went whirling at a blurring speed heading straight towards him. Luckily he was able to jump to the right, dodging it with a little blast of fire from his feet. He was sure that if that thing hit him he'd be shredded to bits. He then looked towards Buggy, who had released another one of the things. This time Draconian had to jump over it, not needing a blast of fire for this since he was already good at it. The thing whizzed by below, slamming into a building, scattering daggers everywhere and carving numerous cuts into the thing.

"Let's see you dodge in midair!" Buggy released a third whirling mass towards Draconian, who was now stuck in the air.

"I don't need to." With that he spun around, bringing his sword back as he did so.

"Dragon Sweep!"

The fire on the sword increased as he swung it towards the mass, destroying it and sending daggers flying everywhere. He was a little unlucky, however, as one flying dagger drew a cut on his cheek, making him wince. Once landing on the ground, Draconian brought his swords up in front of him in a fighting stance, preparing for the next stage of their fight.

With a crazed growl, Buggy launched himself at Draconian, who had launched himself forward, swords raised. Draconian ducked under Buggy's knives as he slashed sideways, bringing his sword in for a slash at his midsection, only to have that part of Buggy float off. His katana blocked the both hands as they came in, reversing his grip on the scimitar and swinging it up towards Buggy's face, hilt flaming as he tried to smash his nose. However, the head popped up again, going up and slowly circling Draconian's body, laughing his annoying laugh. Draconian was still facing the main body, arms attached, as it continually tried to stab and slash him, the disconnected legs were on his right, trying to kick him, only to have him dodge and kick him himself, sending them sprawling down and not able to get up.

Draconian brought both of his swords between the arms, sweeping against them to send them out wide, and give him a shot at the chest. In the process a part of each arm flew off to start circling the body. Ignoring this for now, Draconian slashed with each sword at the chest, cutting it into three parts, two of them each having an arm. He knew that all this would happen, but what he was hoping was that the flame from his swords would also hurt Buggy in the process as it cut through, which unknowingly to him it had, Buggy just hid the fact by wincing when Draconian wasn't looking.

Draconian spun around, swords slashing to try and hit any part of Buggy's body he could, but missing anything that was there. The legs had somehow gotten back up and were now headed back towards Draconian again, kicking out at him. He was able to easily dodge the kick as he slashed down with his scimitar, cutting them in half so that the legs were now separate. Draconian spun around, his right foot out and flaming as it spun around, trying to hit body parts. Luckily he was able to one of the midsection pieces, and he brought it low to hit the two legs, knocking them once more down.

Without warning, the hands stabbed in on either side of them, coming from who knows where. Draconian brought both of his blades out with his spinning body and slashed them across the knives, sending them to the side. Once he stopped, though, Draconian found the hands were now somehow in front of him, knives held between fingers in a fan like pattern. At a speed too fast for him to block they slashed at his midsection, one missing as he swung his body to the side but another scoring a slash across his chest. Immediately he slashed down at both of them, sending them to the side once more, no doubt to come right back at him.

Buggy's laughter was behind him right now, as it had been for a good amount of the thing. This was his only chance at him for now, and he wasn't going to waist it with a slash or something obvious, he knew just the trick. The only way to locate him was his sound, and whenever Draconian had seen him before he was hovering at the same level, so he had a good guess where he was. He only had one chance right now, he didn't want those knives to come back in for now, they might hit him again. So once again, his right foot lit up on fire.

"Dragon Kick!"

His foot snapped back, the heel slamming into Buggy's laughing face and sending it across the port and into a wall. It cost him, however, as one of the hands was able to cut him across the left side of his abdomen. Once Buggy hit the wall, however, all of the pieces of him fell to the ground. They didn't stay there, though, as after a few seconds they got back up and headed towards Buggy, connecting up with him so that his back was now leaning against the wall. His chin leaned against his chest, but still he was able to manage a loud chuckle. "Gotcha twice."

It was true, he had been able to cut Draconian twice, but the whole thing had cost him a lot more than it had Draconian. Other than the kick to the face, his clothes was charred wherever the swords had cut him, the skin there red from the heat, and Draconian still got a few other kicks in their also. With a small groan, Buggy pushed himself from the wall and stood facing Draconian. "This has been fun, but I think it's time I end it here."

With that, he held his arms up to the side, daggers still in hands and a wide grin on his face. Suddenly, his whole body fell apart as all his pieces flew off, and it wasn't just the hands, legs, and that stuff. His whole arm had split into many small circular pieces, the same thing happened with his legs and midsection, except the midsection's pieces were bigger. The only things that weren't split up like the others were the hands, feet, and the head. Everything flew right at Draconian, who slashed down with both swords as soon as they got to him. The slash did nothing as it missed, all the pieces going around the blades and circling his body at a confusing speed.

In a kind of desperation, he continually spun his body, slashing everywhere with his swords and getting his feet out there. Once in a while he was rewarded with a hit, but whenever he cut something it would just split apart more and if he was able to kick something it would just come back in. The hands had attacked a couple of times, but he was able to quickly dodge or send it to the side. This was getting him nowhere, nothing slowed down and it didn't seem to be doing any damage at all. He felt a sting in his side as one of the hands had just come behind him and slash him, creating four cuts along the side, to him it kind of looked like a cut from an animal. Sooner or later he'd just get worn out, and the hands would be able to hit him more, and he'd lose, probably getting the town destroyed in the process.

The hands came up in front of him, this time pressing against each other and swiping down, but not to cut him since they were actually a good few meters away, but as Draconian almost realized too late to send another one of those whirling dagger masses at him at close range. Luckily he was able to barely dodge it, but when it hit the ground beside him it sent daggers flying everywhere, cutting him a few times. Buggy's laughter was heard overhead. "Just admit it, you can't win, you're just a stupid kid trying to stand up to a real pirate, thinking you can we just because you're daddy is famous. Where is he now, anyways? I don't see him around here, I bet you lied anyway, just a chance thing your eyes are the same. There's no need to surrender, just so you know, you're going to die anyways, every part of my body is circling you so fast there's no way you can slash them."

Draconian gritted his teeth in anger from his words, raising his swords, but stopped when he remembered that last part. _Circling all around me, eh? This gives me an idea. _

"Let's see what these powers can really do." Draconian raised his swords from his sides so that they were hanging out to either side of him, the scimitar's sharp edge facing the front while the katanas sharp edge was facing the back. Suddenly he started spinning, moving in the direction that the blades' edges were facing.

"Dragon Tornado!"

The fire on the blades of the swords increased, traveling upwards as Draconian slowly increased his speed, until a tornado made completely of fire was spinning along with Draconian. Caught up along with it was Buggy's body parts, which were too preoccupied to move out before getting hit by the wave of fire.

After a while the flames finally died down to reveal slightly charred body parts lying all around Draconian as he slipped his swords, the fire now extinguished, back into the sheaths. The body parts then gathered all back together, slowly, as Buggy's head floated up a little. When they were all connected Buggy was on all fours, struggling to move his smoking body up. His face was the only thing that looked the same, since he must not have been in the whirlwind of parts originally.

Draconian walked over to him, not really in a rush as it was obvious he had won. Once he was in front of the groaning figure of Buggy, Draconian drew his right foot back, which was once again covered in fire, all the way to above his shoulders.

"Dragon Sledgehammer!"

The foot came down and slammed into Buggy's face, launching him all the way back to fall on the other crew members that were knocked out earlier. "Now get out of my town."

A few of the crew mates that weren't knocked out helped Buggy up and hoisted his groaning body between them. Somehow through all the pain that he went through and all the groaning he was doing Buggy was actually able to speak.

"You'll pay for what you've done, I'll destroy you and your town. Crew mate!"

The head of one of the crew members that had stayed aboard poked his head over the rails. "Yes, sir?"

"Load one of the Buggy balls and fire on the town."

"Yes, sir." He saluted and went back, his voice could be heard shouting a few orders, and a cannon peaked out between the rails. Moments later he came back out, carrying a big red cannonball with the help of another person and loading it into the cannon. "Cannon is ready, sir."

"Then fire, you idiot!" Buggy coughed from the exertion of shouting, but he was still able to laugh as the crew mate set fire to the rope on the cannon.

Draconian chuckled, a grin appearing on his face.

Buggy stopped laughing. "What's so funny, boy, your town is about to be blown to smithereens."

Draconian held up his hand, and without even having to ignite the whole thing, a fireball appeared in it, making Buggy laugh even louder, earning him some more coughing. "You're going to battle my Buggy ball with _that_! I don't even think that I can hold it in!"

As Buggy burst into more laughter, the cannons rope was getting down to it's last length. Draconian knew this, so instead of waiting he just went ahead with what he was going to do, and shot the fireball out, making it fly right into the hole at the end of the cannon.

The whole cannon exploded as the fire hit the Buggy ball, taking out a big portion of it's rail and the upper side of the area of the ship that the cannon was in, they were lucky that it didn't take out the whole side. Draconian looked at the thing, criticizing the damage. After he was done he turned around and walked back towards the crowd, remarking as he went. "It still looks kind of sea worthy, so get out of my town and take your stupid crew with you."

Buggy growled as he was helped up the ramp. "This isn't the last you'll here of Buggy the Clown, I promise you that, I'll get my revenge someday!"

Draconian stopped, looking back. "You better hope that this _is_ the last that I hear of Buggy the Clown, otherwise I'm going to give you a beating a lot worse than the one I gave you today."

Not being able to think of a come back, Buggy slowly drudged his way up the ship with help and sailed off, leaving the village unharmed except for a few small damages done from the fight.

About a month later, Draconian set out on his new ship, sailing the seas to improve his skills by taking down pirates, and to search for his father.

* * *

**Present Day...**

Diana stared at her son while carrying a tray as he sat at the bar, sharing some laughs and telling some of his stories from the sea. She knew that he wouldn't be staying for long, but it was still comforting to have him here, and she'd treasure every moment she have with before he left again on another voyage to find Hawkeye Mihawk.

* * *

There, done. Hopefully you guys liked the fight scene, it's not my best but the quality should still be good. Sorry if it's not that long either, it's just the certain battle, I mean you can't have a long fight for every battle, it just depends on how each person ranks and the moves used. Oh, I feel like I should remark on the length of the whole thing, because there's a good chance that the lengths of each chapter are going to not be the same, and I don't mean by just a little bit, I mean that there's going to be short and long, but not short as in reading it in only a minute short. Now, to respond to reviewers, normally I'd respond to each person separately, but it seems I can only respond the same way for each person, so here goes.

**FieryKitsune, Hutchy, and Angel of the Mirror: **Thanks for reviewing and telling me it's good, especially FieryKitsune, thanks for saying my idea is interesting. Um, hopefully I updated fast enough with this chapter, but I don't know when my next chapter will get out, I've got to do some writing with my friend Anters, and I've got a small vacation coming up.

Now, there is something I want to address, I looked at my Hits, which if I am correct says when people come to my site, and it said 35, I only got three reviews. So for the people who aren't reviewing, please do, if you're not a member it doesn't matter, you're just labeled as anonymous, I'm just saying this for the people who might not know, just in case. Last thing I can remember, I'm only doing the "one year ago" thing for this chapter, in the next one I'm not going to even label it, you'll have to figure out which is a flashback yourself, but don't worry, I'm only doing two more chapters where the fights are just memories. Oh, and sorry to say, Luffy and the gang will only be in a couple chapters, I think near the end of the story, which will be a long way away, sorry again. Read and Review!


	3. Cat Eyes

Cat Eyes

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

Draconian beat the bar with his hand as he erupted in laughter as he told some of the other people at the bar of one of his tales. "And then, I notice that the captain's trying to run away, heading towards his cabin on the ship, so you know what I do?"

One of the people nearest him, the only one actually able to talk, gestured for him to continue. "What, tell us?"

"Well, at first I kicked this one guy who came too close to me, sent him right over the railing! Anyways, I took my katana and just threw it over at the guy, flaming and all, and it landed right in front of him, the point sticking in the deck. Scared the living shit out of the guy!" Draconian erupted into another roaring laugh along with all the other guys near him.

Diana walked over to where Draconian was seated, bearing a tray full of drinks for the people near him. They took the drinks eagerly, only to be waved off by Draconian as his mother got near. "So," she asked, "having a good time."

Draconian took a drink from his water. "What can I say, it's good to be home."

A small smile appeared on Diana's lips. "Which raises a question, why are you home, exactly?"

"What, can't a son visit his mother when he wants?"

"Well you haven't visited once before, buster, and I'm sure that you've been past this part many times."

"Hey," draconian defended, "how was I supposed to know that my town was near on those times?"

"The same way that you knew this town was near, you have a map, and don't try to lie to me about your navigation skills, we both know that they're good, otherwise you wouldn't be able to sail around the sea."

Draconian held up his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright, you got me, but you can't blame me that much, I only come into a town if I need something, I'm not that much of a sight-seer."

Diana leaned forward expectantly. "Then why _did _you come in here?"

"My ship just got a little damaged and I needed some repairs, and when I looked at the map I saw my old town and thought it'd be a good last place to visit before..." just realizing that he might've said a little too much, Draconian shut up.

A suspicious look crossed over Diana's face. "Before what, Draconian?"

"Um, before I go out again for about maybe another year or so. So what's new around here?"

Diana wasn't fooled by the change of subject or the lie. "Draconian, before _what_?"

Draconian sighed and turned his eyes away from his mothers face. "Before going to the Grand Line."

Diana lifted one of her eyebrows. "Oh, that doesn't seem that big a deal, I mean I know it's dangerous, but I'm sure that I can't dissuade you from this, but you don't really seem like the kind of person who goes in search of treasure, or that you would try and find One Piece."

"I'm not going for the treasure."

"Well than what are you..." she stopped in mid sentence, dawning growing on her face. "You're going to look for him, aren't you?"

The dawning was soon replaced by exasperation as Draconian's head drooped down a little more. "Why are you so determined to find him?"

"Do you even need to ask that anymore, every time you do I answer the same way, because I hate what he's done to me and you."

Diana sighed. "Why do you hold that over him, I don't, and who knows why he left, good chance it was probably very important."

"I don't care," Draconian's voice rose slightly from his original tone. "That doesn't excuse him from leaving you in your time of need."

"Draconian, he didn't know that I was pregnant, I didn't even know." She reached out to touch his arm.

As she touched his arm Draconian flinched and almost jerked it away, but thought better of it and let her lay her soft hand there. "I don't care, he still left you."

"So did you."

Normally this would have put Draconian off for a few seconds, but right now wasn't normally for him. "I had a purpose to leave, to find him and beat him in a fight, and unlike him I've actually come back."

"Are you going to come back again? There's no way that you'll beat him in a fight, and how do you know that he won't kill you?"

"I know that I won't win."

"Then why are you even going?"

"To prove myself," Draconian's voice went down to his original tone. "To show him and other people that I'm just as good as him and that I did it all on my own, and even though I will lose I know I'll put up a hell of a fight."

"But how do you know that he won't kill you?"

"I'm surprise that you're the one asking, for one thing even though I do hate him I still respect him, from what I've heard he's actually a pretty honorable person, and I doubt that he'll kill his own son, I mean I wouldn't kill him if I was a better fighter. The worst that I have to fear is major injuries, and that's a definite in the fight, but I don't mind really, I'll take them."

"How do you even know that you're that good, that you'll even be able to go with him for over a minute without losing?"

Draconian finally raised his head and looked into his mother's eyes. "I know because I've been training my whole life, and I've just been gone for a year filled with fights against strong pirates, many in which you wouldn't believe was true even if I told you."

* * *

Draconian's back leaned against the mast as he sat down and started eating a loaf of bread. As he stared out at the sea before him he couldn't help but comment on the dryness of the bread, he would probably have to go into one of the town's and restock on food.

It had been about four months since he'd last set foot in his town. Through the months he had fought a good number of pirate ships, well, attacked would be a better word as he usually just jumped off of his ship when he got near enough and started battling the other pirates. He would hold a brief conversation with the crew first, of course, to judge whether they deserve to get their asses handed to them or not. And yes, he did beat the crap out of any ship he attacked, a lot of people would seem skeptic at first, but he easily proved them wrong. Of course he would set into a town once in a while for stores and supplies, a couple times he went in so that he could get his flag painted and the front of the ship carved.

But, other than that, mostly he just spent the days lounging around and enjoying the weather or practicing. To others who saw his ship, which other than pirates was very few, it looked like his ship was just floating through the sea, but they were dead wrong. Each morning Draconian judged where he was and set the ship in the direction he felt like going that day after looking over his map, getting up occasionally throughout the day to change course if he needed to.

At that moment Draconian stood back up and walked over to the little trap door leading to his cabin and stores below deck. He walked down the steps and made a turn towards his room, where at that moment he kept his map. Once he stepped in he lit his candles for a little better illumination by just making a flick of his hand, sending very small fireballs over to each candle and lighting the wicks.

For about half an hour he stayed down there, looking at his map and judging the best town to go to and which direction he should turn the ship while at the same time finishing his loaf of bread. Once done he headed back up to the top of the deck so that he could make a few adjustments to the sails and other stuff.

He was just about to go change the main sail when he noticed something interesting out at sea. Way out at sea there was another ship, bigger than Draconian's, and it looked like it was heading straight towards his own. It was a little bigger than a speck, he could just make out the outline, which explained why he didn't see it before, since it wasn't even in sight before. He could only guess that it'd seen him, since he could see it, but you never really knew with these things. After a few seconds he decided to wait until the ship got close and see what it wanted, if it was just a regular ship with friendly people he'd let it pass, but if it was pirates or navy that wanted to engage in a little fight, well, he'd only be too happy to oblige.

For a long time he waited for the ship to get closer, all the while noticing some interesting features on it as it got bigger. The first thing that he noticed was that it didn't even have a figurehead on it, which wasn't really an odd thing, unless you counted the fact that it also didn't have the giant post on the front that the figurehead was attached to. The second thing he noticed was the flag, it was obviously a pirate flag, it had a skull on it, except this skull was cat shaped, and had cat eyes in the little eye holes. He soon noticed all the crew members on board, some rushing about for some reason or other, but most of them standing still watching his ship with weapons drawn. They were definitely an odd crew, most of them had fake cat ears on their heads.

But in the front, standing in almost the same way as Draconian, was one of the oddest looking people that he had seen, his skin was a pasty white, and his hair was black and squiggly, it seemed to fall limp down his face. You couldn't see his eyes, as they were covered in big, star shaped sunglasses. Right now his head was bent slightly forward as his right hand was holding the tip of his hat.

Now, Draconian wasn't one to judge on looks, but he could only guess and think that this had to be the captain, seeing as he was also up front of the ship, but he could be wrong, he had been before.

When they finally got close Draconian shouted out. "Are you the captain of this vessel?"

"No, young sir, I am not." See, told you he could be wrong.

"Is there anything specific that you want with me and my ship, mister...?"

"Call me Jango, first mate to captain Kuro of the Black Cat pirates."

Draconian's eyebrow raised in surprise. "You mean of the former captain Kuro."

A small chuckle escaped from Jango's mouth. "No, I mean from the real captain Kuro on this ship."

Draconian blinked. "I thought he was executed."

"So did a lot of people, and a lot of people still do think that. Now, on to business." Jango looked back over his shoulder, picking out a crew member. "You, go get captain Kuro, tell him we met up with the ship and are ready to scavenge parts."

The small _tsssiiing_ of metal could be heard as Draconian slipped the swords out of their sheaths. "Over my dead body."

Jango chuckled again. "That's the idea of it, you little..." Jango's face froze as he raised his head to finally look into Draconian's face, and taking a look at his eyes. He jumped back from his position on the ship with a small shout. "Those eyes..."

"Jango, what is it that you're doing now you buffoon?" The crowd of crew members parted as the man who had spoken walked to the front.

For a pirate he was dressed in an odd way in Draconian's estimation. He wore a black suit with gold buttons going up both sides of the unbuttoned suit and on the cuffs, there was also three golden colored, sideways ovals near the bottom of each side of the suit, right in line with the buttons. Underneath that was a white dress shirt with a very loose tie on it, it looked kind of hastily put on. His pants were also pure black to match the top part. He was wearing very odd shoes, to Draconian they looked more like big, thick grey socks in the shape of shoes, if anything they were probably pulled over shoes, and they had thick black stripes on them. His hair, too, was black and slicked back. On his face he wore glasses, which at that moment he was pushing up in a very odd way, by pressing the bottom of his palm against them and pushing up, his palm was flat out in front of him and his fingers were bent up. All in all, he kind of looked like a butler.

"I ask you again, Jango, what is it that you're doing?"

Jango looked around nervously. "Ah, captain, we found a ship that we can take parts from to help repair our own."

"I know that, you fool, I mean what's got you all in a huff." To Draconian, it looked like this man, Kuro, was annoyed a lot of the time.

"Sir, it's the person on the ship, his eyes..."

"What about them?"

Jango pointed. "Just look at him."

With a sigh, Kuro went over the edge and looked at Draconian, his eyes widening as he looked at his face. "What is your name, boy?"

"Mihawk," Draconian stated. "Draconian Mihawk, and as you can guess I'm the son of Hawkeye."

"Hmm, he may prove to be an dangerous foe," he muttered to himself. "Jango, hypnotize him, please, and this time don't mess it up by hypnotizing yourself, too."

"Yes captain." Jango headed up to the front of the ship to face Draconian and pulled out a pendulum in the shape of a ring of gold colored metal. He started to slowly swing it back and forth in front of Draconian's line of sight. "Look at the pendulum, now when I say Jango, you'll fall asleep. One, Two..."

"Jango." Draconian blurted out before he could finish, suddenly making Jango fall asleep and slump onto the ground, luckily for Draconian he wasn't even looking at the ring, just in case the hypnotism actually would have worked.

Draconian swung his head over to look at the captain. "I have no time for this, so if you want to hurry this up."

"Hmm." Kuro studied Draconian, scanning his body and the two swords he held, then landing back on his eyes. Finally he put his hand back so as to signal everyone to stop. "I'll take care of him myself. For once I want to actually succeed in something without you pathetic lot screwing it up."

With that he gestured for one of the crew members to come over to him. As he walked over to Kuro he brought with him a bag. Kuro quickly snatched the bag from him and took out the oddest thing that Draconian had seen. It was a glove, but on each of the fingers was connected what looked like a very thin katana, each one about as wide as each finger, and all of them roughly three feet long, they looked like very long claws.

Draconian raised both of his swords from his sides, obviously a challenging gesture. "Bring it on."

That's when the blades ignited on fire.

Instantly Kuro's eyes widened in slight shock at the surprise, but almost instantly after his eyes narrowed in what could be either annoyance, hate, or a mixture of both.

"Another person with cursed fruit powers." He muttered to himself so that Draconian couldn't hear, then raising his voice again. "Let's see if you can put those powers to use, boy."

Kuro jumped onto the rail of the ship, his feet moving in an odd pattern as soon as he did. After only a second, his body suddenly disappeared.

Draconian blinked in surprise and started to move his body in what he hoped would be a good defense against this odd maneuver, only to stop as he felt cold steel pressed against his throat. His eyes stared down to see one of the claws pressed against his throat, one pressed under his chin, and the others raised off to the side.

"If you want to live," Kuro's voice whispered in his ear, "I would suggest that you hand over your ship."

"If _you_ want to live," Draconian's voice shot back with a fair amount of humor in it, "I would suggest that you take your claws off of me."

This elicited a chuckle from Kuro, until he felt a slight warmth against his midsection. With cautious eyes he looked down the same way that Draconian had earlier, to see the point of Draconian's flaming katana merely centimeters away from his ribs. With a small growl his body disappeared again, only to reappear leaning against the rail of the ship, pushing his glasses up with his palm the same way he had done before so that the claws didn't cut his face. "Nicely played."

With that, Kuro ran forward with a speed faster that of any other person Draconian had seen. But needless to say, it wasn't a speed he couldn't handle.

Once close, Kuro slashed out with his right hand, only to hit empty air as Draconian dodged back, spinning his body to the right and going into a crouch as he did so. His right foot extended low and covered itself on fire as it tried to sweep Kuro off his feet, failing as Kuro easily jumped over it and thrust his hand down, the points of his "claws" going straight towards Draconian's crouched form.

A ringing was heard as Draconian, continuing his spin, swept his scimitar and knocked all of the claws to the side. He then brought his katana in from a backwards spin and slashed at the still airborne Kuro, who was able to use the momentum from Draconian's counter of his thrust to spin out of the way in the air, just barely dodging the flaming sword, and coming back with another slash of his own.

Draconian stopped spinning and jumped back from Kuro's spinning slash, having to immediately put his swords up again in defense as Kuro automatically appeared in front of him as a result of his speed. Draconian crossed the blades and pushed down as Kuro's claws came in with an uppercut. Due to how far out Draconian's swords went when they were crossed, he was able to block all five of Kuro's claws, and at the same time putting them both on even ground, neither one having any advantages at this point.

Draconian pressed his katana down farther so that the point stuck in the deck, he then pushed off from the ground with his feet on fire and, using the leverage of the stuck katana, swung his legs towards Kuro's face. Kuro bent his body backward, as f he was trying to go under a limbo stick, so that Draconian's feet went sailing over head. He then brought his hand out from under Draconian's swords and slashed up, missing as more fire burst from the end of Draconian's foot and making his body go faster.

Draconian tugged his katana back up as he landed back on the ground to face Kuro once more. He swept his scimitar to the left, blocking Kuro's incoming slash, at the same time slashing left with his katana towards Kuro's shoulder, missing as Kuro bent his body forward. This combination of moves had both of Draconian's swords out to the left, leaving an opening for Kuro, who pressed his fingers together so that the claws were tight together and thrust towards Draconian's exposed chest.

Luckily for Draconian, though, he was able to use the momentum from his original attacks to spin around. This did not allow him to dodge, however, but allowed him to bring his scimitar in front of him as he shouted out.

"Dragon Whirlwind!"

The flaming scimitar spun at an incredible speed, the flames on it making it look like a shield. The claws were sent off to the side, and Draconian launched himself forward so that the spinning scimitar would hopefully slice and dice Kuro beyond recognition.

As Draconian launched himself forward the spinning scimitar didn't really allow him much of a view of Kuro, so it came as a big surprise to him when he didn't feel anything against the sword as he hit the spot where Kuro should have been. He stopped the sword to peer at his surroundings, only to see Kuro nowhere in sight. In a kind of controlled panic, Draconian quickly looked around, even above him, only to see that Kuro was nowhere around, which could only mean that he had disappeared once more with that odd move of his. And that fact could only draw one word from Draconian's mouth.

"Shit."

A burning pain appeared in his side the instant that Kuro appeared right beside him, his hand up above his shoulder indicating that he had just done the slash that had put the five cut marks in Draconian's side he knew he didn't even need to look to know was there. The fingers on Kuro's hand pressed together once again as he thrust them towards the back of Draconian's exposed neck.

Ignoring the pain for a second and focusing at the issue at hand, Draconian dropped down to avoid the attack. As soon as he hit the deck he let go of his swords for a second and pressed down with his hands, bringing his feet into the air.

"Dragon Hurricane!"

His feet caught once more on fire and went out to the side as he spun his body in the air, picking up his swords in the process. Mostly the kicks were easily dodged, except for the first few spins in which he got the wrist with the glove on smacked, sending the claws to the side and having him grit his teeth from the sting of heat.

Draconian landed with his body low and flaming swords out. Kuro had backed up a good distance so that he could get away from the spinning body and prepare his next attack. Both of them stared a6t the other, their bodies perfectly still as they waited for the other to make a move. It was then that Draconian inspected his wound, not by looking down at it but by lowering his hand to feel so as not to give Kuro the advantage of surprise.

Like he had expected each of the claws had made a mark, and with a closer inspection he could actually see the blood on each claw. Luckily they didn't seem to go especially deep, so they wouldn't be that much of a nuisance. He remembered his foot hitting Kuro just a few seconds ago, and the comparison to the two blows each person had paid the other. Normally, a person would think it pathetic, but he just thought of it as something that might get in the way of winning. To him, it's not how the fight goes that determines the winner, it's how it ends that matters.

Before Draconian could fully complete the inspection of his wounds, Kuro's feet started to move again in that odd pattern and he soon disappeared, causing Draconian to stand up and ready his swords, Kuro may have been able to get him once with that, but this time he was ready.

"Dragon Tornado!"

He raised his swords to his sides as his body started to spin, the fire winding around his body as upward as his speed climbed ever higher. After a couple of seconds a small ringing could be heard as Kuro's claws collided with Draconian's spinning swords.

The speed of the spinning slowed quickly as Draconian dug in his heels. This didn't completely stop the spin, though, as Kuro soon found out when Draconian's left foot came up with the spin and went soaring for his head, but missing as Kuro easily ducked and brought his claw back to attack the open right leg.

Instead of continuing the spin like expected, the foot that Draconian had raised to kick at Kuro shot a blast of fire out, which automatically halted the spin. Draconian then proceeded to raise the foot higher above his head.

"Dragon Meteor!"

The foot came crashing down, missing Kuro by mere centimeters and slamming into the deck, creating a huge dent as splinters went flying everywhere, but not flying fast enough to puncture the skin.

Draconian thrust his katana forward at Kuro, who easily just jumped up and landed right on the blade, claws drawn back to attack. This had to be something he'd done before, Draconian thought, as no one in their right mind would jump on a flaming sword unless it was a force of habit that they jumped on regular swords. Draconian didn't even try to block the attack since as soon as Kuro jumped on the sword he jumped off with a small shout directed to his scorching feet.

Seeing an opening, Draconian jumped forward, slashing both of his swords down. Unluckily for him Kuro was able to get his claws up in time to block the blow, or so he thought. Draconian then continued by twisting his swords a little and bending them so that their backs were now pressed against that of the claws. This, plus a little boost of fire, resulted in his own body moving so that it was now behind and slightly above Kuro, his swords blades right above Kuro's shoulders.

He then swung both of his feet in midair to slam into the back of Kuro, and since Kuro was trapped between the two swords and caught off guard there was no way he could dodge... well, except one way.

Kuro's body suddenly disappeared again in another one of his blurs of speed, drawing a laugh from Draconian as he landed. "Kuro, Kuro, you are just way too predictable."

Draconian bent his body forward, feeling the wind against his neck as Kuro's claws obviously just tried to slash him.

"Dragon Kick!"

Almost as soon as he had bent his body, Draconian's now fire covered foot thrust itself up, connecting right below Kuro's jaw. And with a look behind Draconian could see the kick had launched Kuro into the air, not really high, about the height of two-thirds up the main mast.

Draconian jumped up in the air, blasting fire from his feet so that he could attain the same height that Kuro had. Once up he crossed his swords across his chest so that the scimitar was out to his right and the katana to his left, the fire on them grew bigger and stretched out to even farther than they were back.

"Dragon Wings!"

He brought both of the swords slashing in, carving a red horizontal line across Kuro's chest as it hit, probably a little deeper than a regular cut, and at the same time hitting him with a blast of fire that sent him falling back down to the ground angled so that he would land on his ship.

Draconian landed a few seconds after Kuro had come crashing down on the other ship. He then walked towards the front to stare at Kuro's moaning form, supported by a few crew members. He raised the swords from his sides the same way that he had beckoned Kuro in the beginning of the fight. "Anyone else want to try and take my ship?"

No one moved from where they were situated on the ship, causing Draconian to chuckle as he turned around and headed towards the sails to change course for the town he had decided to go to earlier.

* * *

Draconian looked over the railings and deck of his ship. They had just finished repairing the minor damage on it and it looked just as solid as it was before, even more. A lot of people thought it silly to actually come into town just for something as small as this, but to Draconian, you could never be too careful when heading into the Grand Line.

* * *

I told you the lengths would be varying, to tell you the truth, I have no idea how long the next chapter will be, the fight should be a good length but the stuff before and after the memory ought to actually be pretty short. Sorry if I didn't do justice to Kuro's fighting skills, it's been a while since I've seen that section of the show. Oh, and also, I'm sorry if some of you might be annoyed that I called his weapons claws, I know that they're swords, claws just seems the only word for me to use. So, did you miss me during the break? I was on a vacation, sorry if I forgot to tell you, I wasn't sure if I did or not, and when I got back I seemed a little more busy somehow. Oh, don't worry, I'm going to be working on Ch. 4 next, so there won't be any other writing bothering me. Now, on to the reviews.

**Tesser:** Thanks for all the criticism, I'm responding to them individually so as not to get confused.

1. Yeah, I could have used a better word, I'll try to do better next time.

2. Well, I'll do respect first. You don't have to actually like a guy to respect them, I think Draconian mostly respects his sword skills, but there are other things too. Now, the proud thing, um, there are two ways this could be explained. One is that he is proud of being the son of the best swordsman, you know, the title, but hates the actual person, the other is that deep down he's proud, hopefully you understand that.

3. Actually, I would like to thank you for that, this criticism is proof that good reviews can help writers, it has actually given me a good idea for something that Hawkeye says to Draconian when I write the chapter in which they fight, you'll see what I mean in Ch. 5.

4. I'm going to respond to this in two ways, one is when you criticized about the punctuation. You were kind of right, I could have probably done that better, the way you did. Now, as to your confusion on this, I'm sorry. Draconian is also kind of confused on the issue of his father with what he'd heard about him in his mother's time and what he might be now.

That's it, thanks for reviewing me again, oh, and to your mention of the Chop-Chop- fruit, I'm pretty sure I said in Ch. 1 that he got one, and when he was fighting Alvida his foot did ignite in flames, so it's kind of obvious he got it.

**karusho:** Well, thanks for the rating, but personally I think that I'm a 9/10, and here's a few pointers, don't just rate for spelling and how the characters related, you should also rate due to how well sentences were actually written, compare it to other books, and I don't mean fanfiction I mean regular books. Now, in the whole light I actually think I deserve around a 7.5/10. Thanks for reviewing.

**Iwin Ulose:** Dude, of course I'm going to have Draconian/Zoro fight, it's going to be one of my last fights, right before my Draconian/Luffy fight, which is going to be an awesome fight, I can tell you. Oh, and thanks for understanding about the hits, and for putting me on your favorites list.

**Hutchy:** Thanks for reviewing, you're the only person from the original three people who reviewed Ch. 1 that stuck around for Ch. 2. Hopefully this fight didn't drag on as much as the last one, it shouldn't have been worse, right?

**Resident-Evil-playa:** Thanks for noticing the descriptions, come to think of it not a lot of people mention those, and not a lot of other people really describe things as much in my opinion. And thanks for liking the weapons, personally those are my two favorite kinds of swords, actually.

Well, that's all I have, I guess I'll be talking to you in hopefully a few more days, depending on the time I get for writing. Read and Review!


	4. East Blue Battle

East Blue Battle

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

"Are you sure about this Draconian?" Diana's hands were on Draconian's shoulders, forcing him to look at her while she talked.

They were both down at the docks along with a few other people who Draconian had made buddies with. It had been a few days since Draconian's ship had got fixed, normally he would have left immediately, but he didn't want to seem rude so he stayed awhile with his mother. Right now they were both standing at the bottom of the ramp leading up to the ship, Draconian had a sack slung on his back full of supplies and food for storage.

"As sure as the day that I first went out in search for him." His mother opened her mouth to speak again only to be cut off by Draconian. "And don't try to dissuade me, we both know that no matter what you say I'm still going to be searching."

"But..." Seeing the determination in his eyes, though, Diana had to admit to herself that she wouldn't be able to do anything, and with a sigh let go of his shoulders. "All right, at least be careful."

As she bent in and gave him a kiss on the cheek, Draconian wrapped his arms around her for a big hug. "I always am."

They stood there for a few seconds until finally Draconian let go and started to walk up the ramp.

Diana's hands were clutching at each other in worry, and even though she knew it wouldn't do anything, she just had to shout out after him. "Please don't, Draconian, how do you even know that he won't kill you?"

Draconian stopped and, letting out a sigh, answered. "I know because he's my father, and no matter how much he may not like me or think down on me, and no matter how many people he's killed in the past, I'm his son, and he's not the kind of man that would kill family."

"How would you know, you've never met him."

"I know because even though I hate him so much I don't want to kill him, that's not the kind of person I am, and that's not the kind of person he is, I can sense it." Once more he continued up the ramp towards his ship.

"But... I heard that he'd completely destroyed Don Krieg's whole battalion, just for fun, who knows what he's going to do to you?"

Draconian stopped again and looked over his shoulder, humor playing on his mouth. "You shouldn't be worried about that, like he told people he was just having fun, I'd probably do the same thing, I mean Don Krieg isn't as big as you think, trust me."

And with that he boarded his ship, disconnected the ramp from the side of the ship, and started to set sail so that he could continue the search to find Hawkeye Mihawk.

* * *

It had been about eight months since Draconian had first set sail in search of his father, and of course in search of some good fights, and right now he was heading into town so that he could fill up on supplies and see if he could get anything on his ship fixed. The town that he was heading at looked just like any other he had visited, except on the west side of it was a large cliff of pure rock that blocked the town's view in the direction, or at least that's how it looked to Draconian.

The first thing that he noticed once he set in town was that there wasn't any other ships docked, which wasn't really that intriguing of a thing, considering some town don't get any ships at all, but it was still something to note. Another odd thing he noticed was that there was barely anybody about, it would have looked abandoned had there not been some people getting food, but those people seemed in a rush and extremely nervous.

His curiosity was blown almost through the roof when he saw the expressions on peoples faces when they saw his hip pulling in. At first they seemed hopeful, but that had quickly turned to a deep worry, but thankfully when he had got off the ship the people seemed relieved and continued their odd behavior.

Well, Draconian wanted answers. He didn't know why he did, he just did, and when he wanted answers, he got answers, and they came in the form of a man with graying hair running towards him. Well, it looked like he was coming towards him at first, but judging from his angle Draconian could see that he was just running past, so he tried to flag him down. "Excuse me, but do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

Instead of slowing down the man seemed to speed up, obviously trying to get by Draconian as fast as he can, eliciting Draconian to whisper under his breath. "Oh, so that's how you want to play, huh?"

As the man got closer and closer, always gaining speed, Draconian just stood still, waiting until, finally, he crossed Draconian's path.

Draconian's hand shot out, roughly grabbing the man's arm and shoving him back to the ground. He then bent down and laid his hand on the guy's chest, making sure he didn't get back up. "Sorry about that, but I wanted to make sure that you didn't go anywhere, now hopefully you'll learn to answer a person when they talk to you."

The man's breathing became rapid in panic, his eyes bulged. "What do you want, please don't hurt me I didn't do anything."

"Whoa, whoa, hold it, I'm not trying to hurt anyone, I just wanted to know why everyone's acting so weird."

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry, I thought you might be one of them."

"One of whom?"

"I'll tell you if you let me up." The guy tugged slightly at Draconian's arm, which didn't really help that much as Draconian quickly let go, finally letting him up.

"So, what's up with this place?"

The guy started talking while he dusted himself off. "Okay, a few days ago we all saw this very small vessel, like a rowboat, carrying a lot of people off to the side of docks, they didn't land here but somewhere past the cliff. We sent a few people to search and see what it was." He took a big gulp and continued. "The people who had landed were Don Krieg and his crew, and right now he doesn't seem to have a ship so we're all nervous that he might attack the town once he realizes it's there. I was afraid of you because there were reports of one of the guys heading off from the main group and setting out on his own, and I thought you were him coming back."

Draconian didn't seem to notice the last part, he was staring off in space towards where the cliff was as soon as the guy had mentioned Krieg. Finally remembering the guy was still there he snapped out of place. "Oh, sorry, mind wandered off there for a while, it's fine that you thought I was that guy. Um, do you know how to get to Krieg?"

"Yeah, but I don't see why you'd want to go there, this is Krieg we're talking about."

"Yeah, I know, I'm just going to go take him off your hands." The guy's mouth had just dropped, putting a perplexed look on Draconian's face. "What?"

"Didn't you hear me, are you getting the names confused or something, I said that's _Don Krieg_, ruler of the East Blue Sea."

"If he was the real ruler of the East Blue Sea then he would have been easily able to beat my father in a fight, but what I heard was that he got his whole battalion destroyed."

"Your father?" A perplexed look now crossed over the guy's face, until of course he finally noticed Draconian's eyes. He didn't even speak, his eyes just widened almost as far as his mouth hung open.

"Besides, I've always thought that Krieg's titles were stupid, I mean any pirate that's known by others these days can kick any navy man's ass, show me one who can't. Now, can I please have those directions."

"Okay." The man's voice seemed dreamy, as if his mind wasn't even on what he was saying, which it wasn't. "There's a narrow ledge right in front of the cliff, you should be able to just walk on it. After a while it comes into a kind of hollow in the cliff, it looks like someone had blown a hole in it, except the ground's too flat, it should be easy to get to."

"Thanks." With that, Draconian started walking off towards the cliff, leaving the stunned man behind.

As he was walking towards the spot where Krieg was supposed to be, Draconian couldn't help but notice everyone he walked near either shrink away from him or just plain run. He couldn't blame them, they obviously thought the same thing about him as the guy earlier, except was probably boosted from the fact that he was walking towards where Krieg was situated.

The directions from the man held true about the ledge. As soon as Draconian had gotten where the cliff met the water he had spotted a ledge sticking right out of it. It was at the same level as the street he was on and was just as flat, so it only stuck up a little above the water, just enough so that it was dry. It stuck out only a couple of feet, so Draconian had to put his back against the cliff face so as not to fall, which for him would really suck due to you-know-what.

After a while of walking along the ledge, Draconian began to hear voices. So far they were pretty faint, so he couldn't hear them, but they were close, so he decided to turn his head in the direction he was heading to see if he could spot the place that the guy had mentioned so that the pirates only saw him when he wanted them to see him.

Finally, after a few more minutes of moving along the ledge, Draconian was able to make out the voices.

"How is it that we got in this predicament?"

"Will you stop saying that!"

"I was only saying..."

"That's the point, you were talking." This voice was gruff, and definitely seemed like it thought it was better than the other person, so Draconian could guess that it was either just a higher ranked pirate, either in real life or mind, or that this was Krieg.

"If I was to guess I'd say that this was Gin's fault."

"You stop talking about Gin, if I hadn't thrown him out of here..."

"You didn't throw Gin out, he left."

"You shut up or I'll throw you into the sea!" The only thing that Draconian heard after this remark was odd clicking sounds and then the voice of the other pirate.

"Uh... yes captain, I mean admiral." The last part was hastily put in.

A new voice cut in. "You wanna know who's really to blame?"

"Who, that Straw Hat kid?"

"Straw Hat kid?" Draconian mouthed in confusion.

"No, no, it was that damn Mihawk."

This was greeted to a round of muttered yeahs, then joined in by who Draconian could only think was Krieg. "If it wasn't for that pirate destroying our fleet, we wouldn't of had to go through all that hunger and hardships trying to get a new ship."

Draconian had stopped moving as soon as the one guy even said Mihawk, and was now listening. At this moment he was just a foot or so away from the opening, and he couldn't see the pirates, which only meant they couldn't see him.

"Next time that I lay eyes on Mihawk I'm going to beat him so bad he'd wish that he hadn't even heard of the name Krieg!" This was greeted by a small shout of "yeah."

A small chuckle came out of Draconian's mouth as he heard this, his mind racing at the idea of what would really happen if Krieg fought his father.

"I'll make him pay for destroying all of our ships!" This was greeted by an even louder shout of "yeah."

Draconian suddenly had an idea and lowered his bandana slightly, just so that it slightly covered the top of his eyes. He then lowered his head a little, adjusting his bandana to his needs, and making it so that he could pretty easily see in front of him, but making it so that people wouldn't be able to see they shape of his eyes.

Through his ministrations, Krieg had still been shouting about his revenge. "Do not take me lightly, Mihawk, for I am Admiral Don Krieg, ruler of the East Blue Sea!"

A roar erupted from the other pirates at the same exact instant that Draconian, head still slightly bent, stepped out from his hiding place. "Admiral, ruler of the East Blue Sea, how did you manage to get _those _titles, especially since you got your ass handed to you by Hawkeye Mihawk."

Stares greeted him from all the pirates, who were at the back of the clearing, which was about as big as two times the area of a ship's deck. The ground, which was made out of pure rock, was just as flat and smooth as if someone paved the whole thing, and like the ledge it was just above the water.

Don Krieg's hair was a light blue, in the shape of an army buzz except it was longer, especially the sideburns which outlined the side of his square, rough face. On his forehead was draped a kind of tape, the kind a person would wrap around a bicep, that went all around the top part of his head like Draconian's own bandana. He was definitely a big figure, although it was hard to say if that was from his own body or the armor. The piece for his chest and abdominal area fit extremely well, if anything the two areas were right up against each other with no space, as the six-pack and chest of Krieg were crafted into the thing. On his shoulders were these two rounded disks with rims covered in white fur. The insignia was that of a regular skull and crossbones, except the skull face wasn't that round but long, and there was hourglasses on both sides of the thing. The rest of his armor, on the legs and arms, fit just as well as the one on his chest and abs, except they didn't show any muscle. The last thing on him was a big, dark grey cape rimmed in the same white fur as was the things on his shoulders.

"And who are you?"

"My name's Draconian, I'd ask if you've heard of me, but I highly doubt that since you've probably been too busy getting your ass whooped to ask around." He laid his left hand on the hilt of his katana, making it seem casual but also having it just in reach in case he needed it really fast.

Krieg put his hands down, which had earlier been raised in retribution. "So, Draconian, what brings you to my little abode?"

"A little bit of this, a little bit of that, but mostly just to kick your ass like Mihawk kicked your whole crew's."

"Tsk, I have no time for people like you, right now I'm trying to figure out the best way to take over the nearby town."

"Oh really," Draconian acted interested, "from what I heard, it sounded like you were just ranting on about how 'next time I meet Mihawk I'll kill him' or whatever. And just so you know, that's never going to happen."

Krieg chuckled. "You know, it's only been a couple of seconds and already you're starting to annoy me. Pearl, do you mind teaching this punk a lesson?"

"Gladly. What's up, bro?"

Draconian instantly ducked out of instinct, an odd clanging sound sounded from where his head just was. Draconian spun his body around and whipped out the katana, slashing the unknown attacker only to hear a _clang_ as his sword struck metal.

He instantly jumped back so as to get out of attacking range, all the while staring at this odd looking person named Pearl.

The guy's body was huge, but as far as Draconian could tell it wasn't from muscle, and probably not fat, it was just big and thick, but that was the only thing that was big. The arms and legs were the same length and width of a regular person's arms, or they were thinner, it was hard to tell when it was in contrast with the guy's body. His head was of course like a regular person's, and was not in proportion to his big body. Now, add this information to the fact that he had a thick, giant shield on either side of that big thing called a body and he looked like an overgrown turtle. The shield was, like said before, pretty thick and made out of metal, it kind of looked like a sewer grating, except that it had black markings all around it, some other decorations carved into it, and there was a giant pearl stuck in it's center. But it wasn't just the main body that had these things, there were also smaller ones on his hands, elbows, knees, and one on top of his head, and each one was slightly bigger than his hand.

"What is it, bro," to Draconian, the surfer accent sounded extremely stupid, "surprised that I snuck up on you?"

Draconian didn't say anything as he switched his katana from is left hand to his right.

"Well, if you're not going to talk, I might as well introduce myself. I am Pearl, also known as the Iron Wall, and it looks like I'm going to have to teach you some lessons in manors." With that he flipped the shields on his hands from the back to the front and ran forward, arm drawn back.

Draconian raised his eyebrow in skeptics, although no one could see it due to his drawn down bandana, and easily tilted his head to the right to dodge the punch. Another punch came in, forcing him to duck, then roll to the side as another punch came in for his shoulder. After completing the roll, Draconian automatically stood up on Pearl's left and smashed him in the side of the face using the pommel on his sword.

Pearl swung his fist as he turned, only to hit empty air as Draconian easily jumped over the arm. Once in the air Draconian spun around and thrust his foot back, smashing it straight into Pearl's face, causing him to stagger a little bit back.

Draconian landed in a crouch, quickly turning around as soon as he stood back up. As he stared upon Pearl he noticed the blood splattered on his face, leading him to guess that he'd broken Pearl's nose with the kick.

Pearl's hand slowly reached towards his face, feeling his nose and wiping off a bit of blood to inspect with his finger. "Dude, you broke my nose, that was totally uncalled for, now I'm mad."

With an odd shout Pearl started to beat the shields on his hands together, prompting a groan from Krieg. "Great, he's doing it again."

The beating of the shields got slightly faster. "Almost there, almost there... yes!"

Every single shield, including the two big one's on the front and back of Pearl, was instantly covered in a blue fire, which automatically made Draconian smirk as he muttered under his breath. "Now this is going to be interesting."

"Hey, it's not polite to whisper when I'm about to beat you senseless, it looks like I'll have to teach you not to mess with me when I'm like this. Fire Pearls!"

Seven balls of blue flame shot themselves at Draconian, who's smirk only grew bigger as the orbs got near. Casually he raised his katana above his head and slashed down, making the fire on the orbs extinguish as seven blackened pearls fell from the air and started to roll around the ground. A low chuckle escaped Draconian's lips as he saw the confused look on Pearl's face. "You're not the only person that can play with fire."

As soon as he said it the blade on his katana erupted in flames, making everyone's eyes widen. "That's right, I've eaten cursed fruit, and it looks like you're in for a world of hurt."

Draconian rushed towards Pearl, who launched another barrage of his Fire Pearls. Instead of putting them out, Draconian just continued on as the pearls bounced off him, the flames causing no harm whatsoever. As soon as he got near Pearl he jumped, dodging Pearl's arms as the smashed the shields together like he did to charge the flames before.

Once he was over the arms Draconian thrust his sword down so that the point hit the ground and supported his weight. His right foot came up and smacked Pearl under the chin, lighting itself on fire now that it was stretched over Draconian's head.

"Dragon Meteor!"

The foot came down and smashed into Pearl's face, the impact actually knocking Pearl down where he stood and causing even more blood to flow from his nose.

Draconian took his katana out of the ground as soon as he landed, staring down at the figure of Pearl trying to get up while wailing in pain. After a good while Pearl actually managed to get up, all the while rubbing his face with his hand, and with a shout he lunged forward, thrusting his shield-covered right hand in another punch.

This time, instead of just dodging, Draconian grabbed the arm as he spun to the right, twisting it as he moved to Pearl's back and turning the attack into a hammer lock, causing Pearl to wail in more pain as he pushed the arm up.

"What's wrong, Pearl, does it hurt? Then I guess I should be kind and end your pain." With that he quickly let go of Pearl's arm and grabbed his shoulder, slightly twisting him around as he swung himself in the air. As he turned his body completely around, flame-covered right foot drawn back, Draconian raised his head to look into Pearl's eyes.

For Pearl, time seemed to slow as he saw Draconian's eyes, making the features on his face turn first into shock and almost immediately pure horror. "Mi-"

"Dragon Sledgehammer!"

His right foot whipped forward and slammed Pearl in the face before he could even finish the name, the force of the blow, combined with Pearl's shock and the damage from the earlier blows to the head, automatically knocked him out and sent him crashing to the ground, hitting it a few seconds before Draconian even landed, the fire on his foot now extinguished.

Draconian sighed and started to walk towards Krieg. "Pathetic, why don't you face me yourself, Krieg. Unless of course you're too scared."

Krieg chuckled. "So you beat Pearl in a fight, that's no reason for me to be frightened of some kid like you, even if you did eat cursed fruit."

"True, that's no real reason for you to be scared. But knowing you, this is." And with that, Draconian lifted his bandana up to it's original position and raised his head so that he could stare into Krieg's eyes.

The face on every single pirate was the exact same as was on Pearl when he saw the eyes, at first they were all shocked, which quickly switched to horror. All of them did that except Krieg, who's eyes narrowed in hatred as a growl escaped his clenched teeth. "Mihawk."

"My name," Draconian continued, "is Draconian Mihawk, son of Hawkeye, and it's about time that I beat your ass, don't you think?" His left hand came up and grabbed the handle of his scimitar, sliding it out and holding both swords out to the sides in an invitation to battle.

Another growl escaped Krieg's lips. "If that's what you want, boy."

Two guns suddenly appeared in Krieg's hands the same instant that the two giant disks on his shoulders and two other mechanisms on his side opened up to reveal what looked like small turrets on the shoulders and sides. Maniacal laughter escaped Krieg's lips as every single thing on him fire, creating a barrage of projectiles.

As soon as Krieg had even gotten his guns out, however, Draconian had whipped his scimitar forward and begun spinning it at a blurring speed as fire erupted along the length of the blade.

"Dragon Whirlwind!"

Sparks flew as the barrage of bullets continuously hit the spinning scimitar, and soon smoke had covered the area so that no one could see what was happening to either person.

It lasted about a minute but finally Krieg stopped firing, his shoulder plates lowering as he put his guns away. A grin was stretched across his face as he imagined what would be of the young Mihawk, probably lying dead and full of bullet holes. His thoughts were soon wiped out, however, as the smoke fully cleared to reveal Draconian standing just as he was before, flaming scimitar still spinning.

"Is that the best you have Krieg?" The scimitar was brought to a halt and lowered down to his side opposite the flaming katana.

Krieg's face screwed up in rage, a low growl escaped from his lips, slowly gaining until it turned into a shout. "You want my best, I'll show you my best!"

His hand reached up and literally tore off the disk on his left shoulder and held onto something on the underside of it with his left hand as he pointed it at Draconian like a gun. "I'll kill you, Mihawk! Let's see how you dodge poison!"

Every one of the pirates scrambled around in panic, searching through their things, and one by one each of them pulled out a gas mask and slipped it on. The teeth on the skull carving opened up to reveal a hole, or to be more precise, a barrel. Krieg's rage seemed to have calmed down enough so that he was radiating his kind of calm anger. As he slipped on a gas mask a deep chuckle rose from his lips. "Time to die."

A small explosion erupted from the barrel of the new weapon as a big bullet erupted from it. Draconian tried to dodge, but found out the bullet wasn't aimed for him as it hit the ground in front of where he was standing. Another explosion occurred, this one big, as a huge amount of gas, by Draconian's reckoning poison, escaped into the air.

The cloud of poison was just as thick as the smoke from the guns earlier, so for a long while people couldn't see a thing. Underneath his mask, a grin had appeared on Krieg's face, this time it was definite that the Mihawk kid would die, no one without a mask could escape the cloud, and he was as far away from the edge of water so that he couldn't stick his head in it.

For a second time that day the smoke cleared, and for the second time that day Draconian was standing in the middle of it without a scratch on him. His whole body was covered in thick flames from head to foot, with a big gathering around his head. There was also a circle of fire around him, the flames, which were at over six feet when the smoke was clearing, was now dieing down to small embers.

As soon as every trace of gas had cleared, the flames covering Draconian's body went out, except of course for the ones on his swords, and he sank to his hands and knees as he took big lungfuls of unpoisoned air in his body.

Slowly Krieg removed his mask, mouth hanging open as he stared unbelievably at the kid kneeling before him. "How?"

Through his deep breaths, Draconian was able to slightly lift his head as a grin appeared on his face. "Using my powers... I was able... to cover myself in fire... and completely burn... any hint of gas that got near me... I also did some burning on a... subatomic level... just to make sure... the bad thing is... it didn't leave me that much air."

With one last, deep breath, Draconian got back up and raised his swords once more. "Now where were we?"

Fury etched every corner of Krieg's face once more as he vented out all of his anger. "Why won't you die!"

"Krieg, Krieg, you should know by now how hard it is to get rid of a Mihawk, especially since in your last encounter with one your whole battalion was destroyed."

Another shout of rage erupted from Krieg's lips as he raised his left arm once more to fire. This time there was a long packet of shells hanging from it's side, feeding the gun with a big supply of bullets as the automated fire continually sent long, green and yellow striped projectiles towards Draconian.

"Shit" was all that went through Draconian's head as he back flipped, rolled, cart wheeled, and even flipped off walls just to get away from the odd looking bullets. So far he had only gotten grazes against clothing and hair, but sooner or later there was a good chance that one of these would hit him, so there was only one thing that he could do, destroy the source.

Draconian rolled away from yet another close call with the bullets and stood up, only to automatically do back flips as another barrage went straight towards him. A good number of them missed, but some of them just grazed his vest when he would bend backwards for the flip. There was also a few that got a little too close to his face for his reckoning, so he started to pick up even more speed with the back flips by blasting fire out of his feet to move his legs faster when flipping. Soon, though, he started to lose room for maneuvering as he got close to a wall of rock. To the other pirates this looked like it would be the time he got hit, but to Draconian it was just what he needed.

Draconian did one more flip, this time launching himself in the air as he did so and pressing his feet against the wall. He then pushed off, fire blasting from the ends of his feet as he did so, and shot straight towards Krieg. Once more he brought the flaming scimitar up in front of him and spun it to block all the shots that would hit him. With the help of the fire blasting from his feet, Draconian was able to get to Krieg in only a matter of seconds, finally giving him the chance to take out the gun.

Draconian stopped the scimitar spinning and brought swung it back, at the same time slashing out with the katana, aiming for where the gun was. All he heard was a thud as the katana hit Krieg's cape, which he had drawn in front of him to protect from the attack, and was now revealed to be covered in spikes, which was the thing that stopped the katana.

Krieg burst out laughing as he flung the cape back to give him a clear shot of Draconian. Draconian's mind was still focused, however, as he swung the scimitar back in towards the exposed gun even as the first shots fired.

"Dragon Sweep!"

The scimitar went right through the gun, cutting through the middle and lopping off a whole half of it, disabling and destroying it so that it couldn't be used. This victory was ill won, however, as Draconian could feel two thuds hitting his chest, and all that he now knew was that he was falling down.

The shock that he got from being hit by the bullets completely blew off his sense of balance, making it so that he couldn't catch himself when he fell. He hit the ground on his back, and to him it seemed like he had just fallen from a cliff top.

As he hit, Draconian started to breath faster, he looked up into the sky, thinking of what this all meant. It must have been the shock, because he didn't really feel that much pain near where he got hit. He could hear Krieg's laughter at finally hitting him, and Draconian realized that he might just die, considering that he got hit in the chest by two bullets. As this went through his head, he started to look down at his chest, as a lot of people do, he guessed, when they get something shoved through them.

The shock that he had gotten originally was quickly replaced by curiosity as he stared upon something that he definitely wasn't expecting when looking at the chest. There wasn't blood, there wasn't any holes, there wasn't anything even sticking in him, but instead the end of the long bullets were spread out and it looked like they were sticking on him, and he suddenly realized he wasn't painless because of shock, but because these things didn't hurt him, they didn't even penetrate the skin.

"What, you just realized what's happened to you? These are my poison suction cups, and even though the don't kill you when staying on for a short time, they still pack some wallop you stupid kid."

That's when the anger hit him, he'd been so stupid, all along he thought he got hit with regular bullets, and now he finally finds out that they're just some stupid suction cups. Of course, the term stupid quickly left his mind as a burning sensation started up in his chest where the odd suction cups were, obviously a result of the poison.

Draconian let go of his swords and grabbed onto the cups, ripping them off of his skin, which even if it didn't stop the burning, which would probably slowly subside over time, had made it so that he wouldn't be seriously poisoned. All the while, starting as soon as he looked down at the suction cups, Krieg had turned around and walked towards the crowd of pirates.

With annoyance stretched over his face, Draconian finally picked himself up, grabbing his swords as he did so and turning to face Krieg, or to be more precise his back.

"What's wrong Krieg, had enough, afraid that if you pursue you'll wind up dead at the hands of a Mihawk, much like your battalion had in the Grand Line?"

"Hold your horses, Mihawk, I'm just getting something." Krieg turned around and started walking back towards Draconian. In his hands he was holding black chains, and trailing behind him, connected to the chains, was a giant black ball covered in spikes, it was almost as big as Krieg himself.

Krieg brought up the chains and started to spin the ball by his side at a blurring speed, causing Draconian to put up his swords in defense, even though they won't really do him any good against that thing. After a few seconds Krieg stopped spinning and swung the ball towards Draconian, who rolled to the right t0o dodge as the ball smashed the ground where he was just standing.

Krieg pulled the chain to the left, sending the ball swinging to where Draconian was now situated. The ball barely missed, however, as Draconian jumped forward to dodge. Once the ball passed him, Draconian continued running forward, heading right towards Krieg. Both swords slashed out at Krieg, only to be deflected as Krieg once again pulled his spike-covered cape in front of him.

Krieg pulled on the chain once more, making the ball sail towards the two before Draconian could get another chance to try and get past the cape with his swords. The fire that erupted from his feet helped Draconian to dodge the ball once more as he jumped to the side. He immediately had to roll out of the way again as the ball came smashing down where he was standing.

This went on for a while, Krieg swinging the ball as Draconian would jump or roll out of the way, sometimes narrowly. Then when he had an opening Draconian would run in and try to slash at Krieg, only to have his attacks deflected by the cape. And before he could do it again, Krieg would pull the ball back so that Draconian would have to move, otherwise risk getting skewered and squashed. This was getting really annoying for Draconian, as well as for Krieg, but Draconian was the only one of the two who decided to try something different to stop it all.

Once more the ball shot towards Draconian, and once more it was easily dodged, but this time he made sure that he was far away so Krieg had no choice but to pull it back so that he would be able to properly use it. And as soon as Krieg started to jerk on the chain, Draconian jumped up on the side of the ball that faced Krieg, slipping the swords back into their sheaths and making sure to place himself so he didn't get poked by a spike.

The ball went sailing towards Krieg as it usually did, except this time it had a hitchhiker on it. Draconian pushed off as soon as the ball was close enough, flipping in the air a he was launched over Krieg's head. Once he was behind Krieg, Draconian thrust his hands out and launched a blast of fire towards the cape, drawing a line of flames across the top.

Krieg jerked from the sudden heat and tried to put out the fire with his hands, only succeeding to ripping the cape off as the flames destroyed the fabric connecting the cape Krieg's shoulder. As soon as it fell off Draconian shot more flames on it, igniting the whole thing in seconds.

"Looks like you've lost your cape." With that, Draconian leapt forward, pulling out his swords once more and slashing at the now cape-less Krieg.

Krieg let go of the chains and raised his right arm up to point at Draconian. A hidden panel on the wrist opened up and sent out a net, which engulfed the close Draconian and sent him flying backwards.

"Do you really think that pathetic cape was my only defense, Mihawk? Oh, and I wouldn't expect you to get out of that net by force, it's made out of metal." Krieg brought the chain over his head and started to swing the ball around. "And now, to end this."

Draconian stuck two of his fingers out of one of the holes and pointed it towards the swinging ball. Fire erupted along the length of his arm and traveled to his hand, releasing itself through his fingers and shooting through the air to engulf the ball. Once he was sure that the whole ball was engulfed, Draconian controlled the fire and had it travel down the length of the chain, covering it in a matter of seconds.

With a shout, Krieg let go of the chain, making the ball fly to the side and land on the ground. Once it hit, the flames on it turned white for a few seconds, then disappeared. While shooting an angry glance towards Draconian, Krieg went to pick up the chain once more.

From his vantage point in the net, Draconian yelled out to Krieg. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you, the metal's extremely hot, and it's going to stay that way for a long time."

Krieg sneered at the captured son of Mihawk. "Don't try to trick me, Mihawk, I'm the master of deceit."

"All right, but don't say I didn't warn you, now how to get out of this cage? Ah, I've got it."

As Krieg walked over to the chain, Draconian covered his whole body in fire, spreading the flames to encompass every part of the net. The flames started to turn white hot, and the metal seemed to be melting slowly, but that wasn't Draconian's plan.

As soon as Krieg touched the metal he pulled his hand back, shaking it fiercely from the sting. He shot another dirty glance at Draconian, only to witness Draconian's odd escape.

Almost as soon as the metal started to melt, the fire had extinguished. Not only that, but Draconian gripped the net and literally sucked every single ounce of heat out of it, gathering the heat energy in his arms. The metal was now freezing cold and was starting to crack. Finally, Draconian shot out all of the heat he had gathered up in one quick burst, blasting a big section of the net to pieces.

As he walked out, he heard Krieg yelling in anger over near the chain. "How! How did you get out of my net!"

"A little science. Whenever you heat glass to a high degrees and then pour water quickly on it it breaks, I figured the same thing might happen with metal so I heated it up to a little over the temperature of the chain that you touched and then instantly took all the heat away. The dramatic switch to temperatures broke the metal and I was able to get out."

A scream of pure fury erupted from Krieg's throat. "That's it, it's time that I teach you a lesson!"

Draconian smirked. "Weren't you going to already teach me a lesson?"

Krieg ripped off the other disk on his shoulder, holding it out in front of him as a long staff shot out of it's bottom and a triangle of metal shot out of it's top. "It's time for me to reveal my battle spear!"

"Tsk, about time we did some hand-to-hand combat, I was getting sick of all those damn projectiles." Draconian brought his swords up in a fighting stance. "It's about time that I show my real skills as a fighter."

Draconian rushed towards the waiting Krieg, who swept the spear to the right, which Draconian easily ducked. The spear came in low from Draconian's left, prompting him to easily jump over it. Once more the spear came in, and since he was in the air Draconian swept both of his swords to the side to block.

An explosion rent the air where the spear had hit the swords, sending Draconian hurtling far to the side to land on the hard rock. Krieg, however, wasn't harmed in the least by the blast.

Draconian shakily got back up, bringing his swords to bear as he stared at the odd weapon. "What the hell...?"

Laughter escaped Krieg's lips as he shouldered the spear. "That's the power of my battle spear, whenever it hits something it creates an explosion."

Draconian's hands tightened on the handles of his swords as he muttered under his breath. "Great, just great. Well, I should have expected something like this."

Again Draconian rushed towards Krieg, this time vaulting completely over him when the spear came in from the side. Once over Krieg, Draconian slashed his swords down on top of his shoulders, he then spun a little in the air, slashing at the back of his shoulders as he did so, and thrust his feet out to hit Krieg right between the shoulder blades, pushing Krieg forward a little and launching Draconian back into a flip to finally land once more on his feet.

Krieg turned around, laughing. He didn't even have a scratch on him. "Is that the best you can do, Mihawk?"

Draconian grit his teeth and rushed forward, almost immediately skidding to a halt and rolling to the right as Krieg raised his spear and sent it crashing down. The explosion from this had a spread pretty wide frontal radius, or at least the smoke did, and Draconian was barely able to get out of it's way. As soon as he stood up he had to jump back as Krieg stepped through the smoke and thrust the spear tip down in the direction of Draconian.

Once in the air, Draconian wasn't able to see Krieg, due to the thick smoke from the explosion, so he wasn't really prepared when the head of the spear thrust out of the smoke and stabbed towards him. All he was able to do was swing the swords in front of him to block, but the spear still hit, and the explosion was just as strong as the others.

The force of it sent Draconian flying back to slam into a nearby rock wall, to fall back down and land on his knees. He got up a little shakily, but otherwise okay.

He wasn't able to take a break, however, as Krieg rushed towards him and stabbed with the spear. Draconian ducked into a crouch and leapt forward before the spear hit the wall, creating another explosion and putting a small crater in it's side. He attacked Krieg with a frenzy, blades repeatedly hitting the armored chest and abs of Krieg, he even sent a few blasts of fire, none of which did anything to him.

Krieg shoved the spear point down, trying to hit Draconian's back but missing once more as he rolled away. Well, he didn't miss completely, as Draconian wasn't able to get out of the way as quick as usual and got hit with a smaller amount of the explosion. This only sent him staggering to the side, which he was obviously able to quickly recover from as he jumped over a sweep from Krieg, kicking him in the chest as he did it and sending himself back more with an added flip.

Krieg rushed forward, once again sweeping from side to side with his spear. Draconian ducked once more, this time turning around as he did to go into a crouch.

"Dragon Kick!"

His right foot caught on fire and thrust out, hitting Krieg's abdomen and making him bend over slightly with a proclaimed "oof." Draconian looked behind him to inspect what his foot had done, only to inspect Krieg's spear as it came down and smashed into his body.

This time the explosion sent him hurtling to about three-quarters across the rock clearing. Of all the previous explosions this one had hurt the most, as was evident from the fact that at the moment he could only sit on his hands and knees. It was true that blocking with his swords didn't really do much to lesson the blow, but at least they did something, before he could get up, but now that he had been hit head on the other explosions didn't really seem that big of deals, although that could just be the damage of all the collective blows, you can never tell sometimes.

But this blow wasn't in vain, or at least he hoped not, because when Draconian had look back to see what his kick had done, he had noticed a tiny crack in Krieg's armor. It was very small, barely noticeable, the only reason that Draconian had saw it was the fact that he was in a kind of panic, and usually when you're in a panic you either overdo things and screw yourself over or are able to notice small things that may help you. Thankfully, Draconian had gotten the second one. And even though it was a very small crack, insubstantial to most, it was still something to Draconian, and he was sure to exploit it.

Krieg hoisted the spear up so that it rested on his shoulders and started to walk towards the kneeling Draconian, a low chuckle on his lips. "Not so tough now are you, 'son of Mihawk.' As far as I can tell you're just as weak as that stupid fool, even with your cursed powers. You know, I was hoping for a good fight, one that would be a challenge, but all you've given me is annoyance at your tricky ways. Well, it ends here." Krieg stood behind the kneeling Draconian and raised his spear up, point down and ready for thrusting. "Goodbye, son of Hawkeye."

"Dragon Thrust!"

Draconian clenched is fist around the handle of his katana and reversed the grip, stabbing out with it behind him to hit Krieg's armor before he could even lower the spear. A blast of fire accompanied the sword thrust as it was stabbed right into the small crack.

The force of the thrust had Krieg bent over like before, when he got hit with the kick. A cracking noise could be heard as cracks started to grow from the spot where Draconian's katana had hit the crack, but Draconian wasn't paying attention to this, he didn't care. As soon as he saw Krieg bend over he took the katana out and stabbed it on the ground, using it as leverage to hoist himself up.

"Dragon Flip!"

As soon as he was up Draconian used the leverage from the katana to flip completely around, his right foot extended and covered in fire. Usually this move would be used to smack someone under the chin, but in this scenario when the foot came back down from the top of the flip it smashed the back of Krieg's head, forcing him to the ground.

Draconian got back up and turned around to look upon the form of Krieg rising up from his position on the ground. The face on the young Mihawk was full of fury over what Krieg had said to him, and he was definitely going to take a lot of it out on the now armor-less Krieg.

As soon as Krieg had gotten up he swung the spear again towards Draconian, who instead of dodging moved his swords to block. He laid the scimitar out horizontally in front of him and turned the katana upside down, not reversing his grip however, to go vertically in front of him, crouching down when he was finished.

"Dragon Cross-Defense."

Another explosion rent the area where the spear had hit, but instead of being sent flying Draconian had just skidded back, keeping his original position. He leapt forward towards Krieg.

"Holy Dragon Cross Slash!"

The katana slashed up at the same instant as Draconian spun around, bringing the scimitar and slashing across. Both of these had hit Krieg and carved a cross mark on his chest. Draconian immediately jumped back as soon as he was done as the spear came in once more to try and strike him.

As soon as he was back Draconian raised up his katana and brought it back down, sending out a blast of fire from it's tip that headed straight towards Krieg. As the fire got close, Krieg placed the spear into his left arm and raised his right, revealing the same slot that had earlier held the net, but now a small barrel came out and blasted fire right back at the flames headed towards him. It didn't provide much defense as he'd hoped, however, as flames crept in from the sides and struck his defenseless chest and abdomen.

Suddenly, Draconian appeared in the flames right in front of Krieg with his right hand drawn back.

"Dragon Fist!"

Fire in the shape of two dragons twisted around his fist as he launched it towards Krieg, landing a hit on his chest and sending him stumbling back.

The flames died down and Draconian slid his katana from back out of his sheath. He then raised his swords to his sides and crouched down.

"Dragon Tornado!"

He leapt forward and started spinning his body, because he launched himself while in a crouched position his body was at a slant, therefore making it so that the funnel of fire that erupted from the spinning blades blasted towards Krieg and hit him head on. That wasn't his only problem, though, as Draconian's body met up with Krieg's and the spinning swords started to continually slice his chest.

After a while the spinning finally stopped, but that didn't mean Draconian didn't let up. As soon as he landed Draconian stabbed both of his swords down and flipped like he did earlier.

"Tic-Tac-Dragonfire!"

His foot clipped Krieg's chin, and as he went over the top of the flip he let the pressure off of his swords. They both snapped up, following the direction he had gone, and made two vertical slashes on Krieg's body. Once Draconian had finished the flip, he quickly slashed both swords sideways so that they left two horizontal cuts along Krieg's body, now making it so that when they added with the vertical cuts they looked like a tic-tac-toe board.

Shaking off the cuts, Krieg brought his sear back up and started to swing it down towards Draconian.

"Dragon Wings!"

His swords were already crossed over his chest as a result of the horizontal slashes, so now the fire covering them increased as he slashed the spear, lopping it off at the top of the staff, right below the disk with the insignia, before it could even come all the way down.

Draconian jumped up and hooked his foot underneath the rim of the disk, with it he kicked out at Krieg, hitting him with the disk and causing an explosion which sent Krieg hurtling back like Draconian had done so many times before.

With the disk tossed to the side, Draconian landed. "It's time that I finish this fight."

He swung both of his swords so that the katana's back was resting on his left shoulder and his scimitar's was rested on his right, his arms were crossed in front of his chest. The fire covering them grew, encompassing both of his arms, growing bigger on the blades and erupting behind him like wings. He then leapt forward and started to run towards Krieg, who was now shakily standing up.

"Dragon Cross-Fire!"

He brought both of the blades slashing down, unleashing a giant blast of fire as he did so, which sent Krieg flying across the expanse of rock to slam into the wall on the far side. There was a big X cut into him, the edges of the wound were really charred, and both lines went diagonally through the tic-tac-toe like cuts on his body.

With some deep breaths, Draconian calmed himself back down and slipped the scimitar back into his sheath, remarking at the prone body of Krieg. "You know what they always say, Krieg. X always wins."

He was just about to move away when he heard a groan from where Krieg was and spotted him moving, although very slowly.

"I guess I'll have to put an exclamation point on the whole thing." He muttered as he ran towards where Krieg was leaning against the wall. When he was about three-fourths of the way there, Draconian plunged the katana into the ground and vaulted off of it, flying feet first towards Krieg.

"Dragon Comet!"

The ends of the feet lit on fire as he slammed them right into Krieg's chest, the force actually shoving him even deeper into the rock wall. Small and medium sized stones fell from the cracks made above Krieg, a few of the hitting his body but doing no real harm, which didn't really mater as he was now knocked cold.

Draconian grabbed his katana and slipped it into his sheath, turning to the crowd of pirates. "Here's what will happen, I'm going to convince the town to lend you a small boat, which you'll use to get out of here. If you don't like this idea, then I'll give the navy a call, see what they think, and if I even hear a whisper that you came back here, I'll hunt you down and finish off every single one of you, is this clear."

Mumbled replies of "yes" greeted this new idea.

"Good." And with that, he turned around and started to walk towards own.

* * *

Draconian once again gazed out at the sea as he stood just above the dragon head carved into the front of his ship, the flame on it burned even brighter than it had before he came into his home town. He was once again off to search for his father, and this time he knew he'd find him quickly, this time he would be able to actually confront him instead of wandering about the sea hoping he'd have good luck. This time, he'll be able to face him in a fight and show the world how good he'd gotten without his father to be there.

* * *

Whoo, long chapter, my longest ever, I believe. So was that a great ending to the fight or what, I would have to say it was my best work for this story. Oh, and sorry if it seemed to lag, and sorry if you didn't like the Pearl battle, I was just trying to set up a certain mood with it. One last apology, I'm sorry if I made a mistake in some people's descriptions. Oh, I won't be able to get the next chapter up as soon as I did this one, since after this I'm going to be working on the next chapter for the story I'm writing with my friend, Anters. Now, on to reviews, but before I start responding, there's an issue I need to address. For some odd reason, there hasn't been a single reviewer that has reviewed my story more than once, which means that for each chapter I get a different batch of reviewers, except of course for Hutchy, thanks man. This really makes me sad, in a way, because this means that the people who reviewed only chapter one have either stopped reading my story or decided from now on not to review, but what's worse is the people that review for later chapters, like chapter three. This means that they have read the earlier chapters, which are good lengths each of them, and decided not to review then but later, thinking it's not a big deal. Well it is to me, because when I review a person I review every one of their chapters, and I would like it if other people did that, unless of course I have like ten chapters and you review every three or so, then it's not so bad, but that's not the situation right now, is it? So please, review for each chapter, tell me what you think so that I can improve my writing. Okay, now I'll get to my replies.

**Hutchy: **Thanks for reviewing for each chapter, but I was hoping that in this review there'd be more, something kind of conversation like, not just a question. I'm just saying, it'd be nice. As an answer to your question, Mihawk does not know that he has a son, but there's a chance he might in the next chapter. Hint, hint.

**Dollar1: **There seems a few things to answer, but I feel like starting at the end, with your question about why he didn't destroy the fruit. Ever since Shanks had told him about them, Draconian had wanted one, and he definitely wasn't going to pass up his chance on getting one. And to tell you the truth, those moves that he used were his original moves that he'd practiced, he just boosted their power with the flames, so technically he was using his own strength, plus a few others. You know, I never really thought of him as like Zoro, but hey, to you he might be, but you might be on to the Kung-Fu stuff, I've always loved watching it and I guess that's where I get my sword fighting inspiration. Sorry you don't like the fight scenes, but it'll be hard to improve, hopefully I do over time, because when I've improved sp much from my other stories it's hard to improve as fast, I guess you'll have to deal with the fights like they are. Okay, now with the Buggy, do you mean the fight was 8-10 pages, or just the flashback, because you might be right with the flashback, but definitely wrong with the fight, unless you're talking about a good sized font. And sorry I didn't do him with that much injuries, but it's hard to change these fights when I've been thinking of them for a good number of months, hopefully this fight had more struggle for you. Besides, the earlier fights weren't supposed to be meant as that much of a struggle anyway. Finally, I hope your eyes aren't too tired right now, I wouldn't be surprised if they were though.

**Story Dragon: **All I can really say is thanks for the review, there's not much else to say in respond to a review like yours, especially since all your reviews are about the same. I'm sure you loved this chapter, am I right?

Well, that's it for responding, I got nothing else to do, so I guess I'll send you off with my favorite ender. Read and Review.


	5. Eye to Eye

Eye to Eye

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

Draconian took up his perch on top of the dragon's head as his ship sped along, cutting through the waves as if it was butter. The fine spray from the water felt like a big feather gently caressing his face as he stared out at sea.

It had been many weeks since he had left his town once again, the search for his father had proved difficult, but not as difficult as it had been when he first left his town at the age of seventeen. Now, though, he was close, he knew it. He docked at every single town that he passed, asking questions about Mihawk, hoping that the people could point him in the right direction.

Most of the villages didn't really know anything of Mihawk's location, and a fair number of them had even driven him out of town. This wasn't to say that he didn't get any information at all, there were still some towns that actually had some clue as to where Mihawk was, and Draconian had been following that information to a point.

It wasn't just towns that he got information out of, however. Just a few days ago he came by a pirate ship that was barely even seaworthy, big chunks had been sliced off by the looks of it. The pirates on it had old him that Mihawk had done this to their ship, which wasn't really surprising to Draconian. Of course, they didn't really tell him freely, he had to threaten them a little before they told him where Mihawk had attacked them.

And now, a few days later, he was still following that bit of information. He highly doubted that the info was false, seeing as the pirates he ran into knew of Draconian "Dragon" Mihawk, and even if they hadn't heard of him, the fact that his eyes were the exact same as Mihawk's would scare the living crap out of anyone in their situation, so there was no real reason for them to lie.

So now he searched, his eyes were always on the lookout for any clue as to where his father might be. He knew that he was close, he new it, especially when he saw the ruin of a ship cut in half the other day; the crew had probably escaped through some rowboats or something. It was a sure sign that Mihawk was close.

The sun beat down on Draconian as he bent down even lower on the dragon head. It was sometime in the afternoon and the sun was at it's hottest, of course that still wasn't really a lot of heat for someone who could control fire. Usually Draconian found this kind of heat pleasant, but now he didn't take note of it due to the fact that his attention was fully on the sea.

His eyes squinted a little as he looked somewhere to the left. His eyes had ignored what was over there before because he thought he hadn't seen anything, but now he could swear that there was something peaking into the sky. Right now it was only a dot, and even with his eyes focused Draconian couldn't make out what it was, but he was sure that something was over there.

Draconian jumped backwards off the dragon head to land on the deck, soon heading towards the masts. Immediately he turned the ship a little to the left so that he could head towards the little dot on the horizon, and soon he went back up on the dragon head to stare at the dot and try to make out the shape is it slowly got bigger.

After about half an hour later the object could easily be made out. It was a small island, by Draconian's reckoning, not really that big. There were a lot of palm trees on it, and a wide sandy beach surrounded the whole thing. All in all it was about as big that the area of the palm trees occupied could probably hold a couple houses, but there was no way that a village could live in it.

After a few minutes, Draconian was able to make out almost every detail on the small island, including the small boat docked on it's edge.

The sides of it were pretty low to the water, about as low as a regular rowboat, although it was wide enough in the back for three people to easily sit side to side. Of course, it was obviously made for only one person, since in the middle of it stood a big chair, kind of like a throne. And surrounding the boat, sitting on the rail, were many candles glowing with a green flame.

There was only one person who traveled in this ship, and that was Hawkeye Mihawk.

And so there he was, Draconian was only minutes away from the shore when he spotted him.

He was laying down with his back to a palm tree, his hands were rested at the back of his head. One of his legs was pulled up while the other was just laying flat on the ground. This seemed kind of interesting to Draconian, seeing as that was actually one of his own favorite poses for relaxing, guess he probably got it from his father.

On top of his head was adorned a big black hat with a white feather sticking out of it's left side. He wore a loose purple coat, the length of it extended all the way down to billow by his feet. The coat was unzipped, revealing a fine toned body much like Draconian's own. Hanging in front of his chest was an odd looking pendant, all it was is a rectangular square of finely carved wood, just big enough so that you could grasp it in your hand. The only other item of clothing was his pants, which were just a plain black color.

At this point his eyes had opened to stare out at the ship, revealing his yellow, hawk-like orbs which he had been named for. He looked right at Draconian as soon as he laid eyes upon the ship, but wasn't able to see his own eyes as Draconian lowered his head a little. His face was shaped just like Draconian's, the cheeks were sharp and traveled straight down to his pointed chin. The outside of his face was outlined by his beard, which was just a thin line the color of deepest black. A small line of beard traveled from the middle of his lower lip down to meet the original beard, just like an upside-down T. Also, about midway down the cheek a sharp triangle of beard shot out for a few inches. His mustache wasn't actually connected to his beard, but instead looked like two Vs side by side.

Other than the eyes, the thing that drew your attention was the sword strapped to his back. Draconian couldn't actually see the blade, but judging by the hilt he guessed it was pretty long. The hilt itself was about two feet long, maybe more, and was stark white. It was completely round, no oval like angles whatsoever, and the bottom of it widened to reveal the pommel, which was a greenish blue stone. Each side of the crosspiece was just as long as the hilt, and was also stark white, maybe carved out of ivory. It was engraved with many jewels down it's length, and the ends were shaped so that it split into two small curving pieces.

Draconian jumped right off of the dragon head as soon as the ship had hit the shore, not even waiting to make sure it wouldn't drift off. He rested his left hand on the hilt of his katana as he walked towards Mihawk, kicking sand everywhere as he did so. He stopped when half the beach was between him and Mihawk.

Through gritted teeth he addressed the relaxing man. "Get up, now."

Mihawk raised his head to stare curiously at this young challenger, and in his French accent he responded. "I do not see why I have to."

In response to this Draconian started to stroke the hilt of his katana. "I've searched for you for over a year, now get up or I'll make you."

Mihawk cocked his head a little to the side. "Is that supposed to be a threat?"

"A threat, a fact, whichever you want to make of it."

"Hmm, I've had many challengers threaten me in my life, and not a lot of them were able to back up their words, are you sure that you're able to?"

"I'm a hundred percent sure that I can back it up, you want to see?" With a small flick of his wrist he popped a little bit of his katana out of it's sheath and started to slowly draw it out.

"And who exactly do you think you are to be making these kind of assumptions?"

His hand completely stopped so that only a few inches of the sword had come out. "Who am I?" He gave a small chuckle full of hate. "What's wrong, Mihawk," he snapped his head up to reveal his hawk eyes, "don't you recognize your own son!"

The only thing that could be heard through the silence was the slight wind that gently traveled through the air. For only a few seconds the silence lasted, but to both Draconian and his father it felt like hours.

"What, don't have anything to say you bastard?"

Slowly Mihawk blinked his eyes, exclaiming in a hushed tone as he did. "Sacre bleur... so your mother is Diana."

"Oh, so you remembered the name of the person that you abandoned." His eyes were filled with hate as he spoke through gritted teeth.

"I never abandoned her... I'm sorry but I didn't get your name."

Draconian's eyes narrowed slightly. "My name is Draconian."

If it weren't for the complete seriousness of the situation Mihawk would have chuckled. "So, did you know that she named you after me?"

Draconian's eyes shot open, blazed with fury. "How dare you say that, there's no way that I am named after you!"

"Well, maybe not, but my first name is Dracule, Diana was one of the only people who I've ever told that too, and it sounds like she named you after me."

A small growl escaped Draconian's lips as he contemplated this. "Fine, maybe she did, I guess I'll just have to go by Dragon now, cause there's no way I'm going by Mihawk."

"Dragon? Interesting, but I guess it fits."

Under his breath Draconian muttered. "More than you know." He then raised his voice back to normal and continued on. "Talk is over, I think it's time that we fight."

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"I mean why is it that you want to fight me? It's not going to solve any of your problems, especially since you're going to lose."

"I don't care."

"You don't care? You're fighting me for no reason at all and you're going to lose, and you're saying that you don't care?"

"I'm not saying that I'm fighting for no reason, I have a reason."

"And what is it, exactly?"

"Two things, the first is revenge for abandoning me and my mother."

"I never knew that she was pregnant, if I did I would have come back once in a while."

"I still don't care, the fact that you abandoned her in the first place is bad enough."

"But..."

Draconian made a cutting motion with his arm, shouting out his rage as he did. "I don't want to hear your excuses! Throughout my whole childhood everyone looked down at me because I was the son of you! They even dared to say that the only reason I'm as good as I am today was because of you! Well I have news for you, I did this on my own, and that's what I came here to prove today!"

Mihawk looked deep into Draconian's eyes, seeing the rage and sadness deep within him, driving him to something that Mihawk had only seen in the eyes of Roanoa Zoro.

Slowly he lifted himself up, grasping the hilt of his sword as he did so and pulling out the giant blade. It was a single edged blade, curving at the end like a cutlass would. It was over three feet long and a little thicker than a cutlass. The blade was a deep purple, almost black, and had a small rectangle of the ivory looking substance the hilt was made out of about a foot long pressed against the bottom of it and connected to the hilt.

"Usually I wouldn't do this, but you are my son, I can tell that you worked very hard to get to this point, and the look in your eyes reminds me of another great swordsman that I've fought before, so I shall use my Black Blade against you in combat. Just before we fight, though, I believe that I should warn you, you will lose this, even if you are my son."

"I know," Draconian's voice had now evened out, "but this is a one in a lifetime chance, and I'm not wasting it."

"Then shall we start?"

In response, Draconian's right hand grasped his katana while his left hand took old of the scimitar's hilt, both hands sliding the blades out a little bit in preparation.

Mihawk nodded and pointed the tip of the sword down, drawing a line in the sand before him.

For a while Draconian waited for Mihawk to make a move, only to have him stay completely still. So, since it was obvious that Mihawk wasn't going to do anything, Draconian shot forward.

Fire erupted from the bottom of the still sheathed blades, blowing backwards and giving Draconian a little more speed and making sand spray from the sides of his feet. This caused Mihawk to cock his eyebrow in interest as he stared upon the speeding Draconian.

"Dragon Wings!"

Draconian whipped the swords out of their sheaths, slashing them horizontally with lightning quick speed towards the still unmoving Mihawk.

CLANG was all that was heard as the blades were stopped in mid-slash by Mihawk's own Black Blade, which had whipped up seemingly out of nowhere to block the flaming swords.

Draconian immediately jumped up and twisted his body, drawing the blades back so that they were now out to the side.

"Dragon Tornado!"

His body spun at an unimaginable speed, creating a tunnel of fire that twisted up into the air.

Mihawk brought the hilt of his sword up and pointed the blade down, slanting it in the opposite direction that Draconian was spinning. Multiple clangs were heard as Draconian's swords were continually blocked by Mihawk's own blade, making the attack launched by Draconian useless.

Out of nowhere Draconian's katana shot down and stabbed itself into the sand, and faster than lightning Draconian swung his body around the sword and smacked his foot against the side of Mihawk's head.

Draconian's feet slammed into the earth as he completed the spin, blasting a huge amount of sand back from the momentum. He continued to spin his body and brought his scimitar across to slash at Mihawk's waist, only to be fended off as the dark blade snapped to the right and knocked the scimitar off to the side.

Immediately Mihawk sent his sword snapping over to the left to fend off Draconian's katana, which had just been released from the sand. His foot the shot out and smashed into Draconian's chest, blasting him off his still crouched feet to send hurtling backwards.

Draconian used the momentum of the kick to go into a backwards roll, gracefully getting his feet right back under him and going into another crouch. Immediately he brought both swords up and crossed them over his shoulders in preparation for the next part of the fight.

Mihawk rubbed his right hand over his cheek and looked down at Draconian. "Hmm, not a lot of people are able to even hit me, nice job."

"Shut up."

Mihawk chuckled. "It seems that you're temper is as feisty as your fire. So you've eaten the Devil Fruit."

"When'd you pick that up?" As he said this, the fire on the swords traveled to his arms, completely covering them, and grew in size so that it went over his back. He then ran forward, spraying sand all around with his ferocity.

"Dragon Cross-Fire!"

He slashed both swords forward in an X pattern, slamming them against Mihawk's own Dark Blade. The fire from the blades erupted all around Draconian, pushing against Mihawk's sword along with the scimitar and katana. Not a single fleck of flame was able to get past Mihawk's sword, and no matter how hard Draconian pushed he wasn't able to overpower his father.

With a small grunt, Mihawk pushed Draconian back, canceling the fire as he did so and sending Draconian skidding through the sand. Quickly, however, Draconian switched his feet's position and jumped right back towards Mihawk, flaming swords at his side.

"Blades of the Dragon Brethren!"

His swords slashed towards Mihawk at what looked like it would have been a very intricate but fast attack, but it was already over as both swords were sent off to the side in half a second by Mihawk's own lightning quick sword. Once the swords were out of the picture, Mihawk then slashed the sword up, drawing a big line of blood that started at the right side of Draconian's hip and ended at his shoulder.

The whole thing had happened in a split second.

Draconian barely had time to register his injury as he snapped both of his swords up, barely blocking Mihawk's strike towards his neck. The cut started to take a slight toll on him as his katana was pushed back towards his shoulder, but with a grunt and a burst of fire, Draconian pushed Mihawk's blade back a little bit so that he was able to jump out of range of the sword.

For a second Draconian was able to contemplate his injury. The cut was deeper than any normal slash, but it wasn't that serious. It stung worse than any other cuts he'd gotten, but that was no reason to give up. So, pushing aside the pain, Draconian jumped forward once more at Mihawk, tilting his body in midair and jabbing his sword into the ground.

"Dragon Hurricane!"

His legs spun at a blurring speed, the fire on them creating a circle as it headed towards Mihawk. The attack sailed over Mihawk's head as he easily ducked the spinning feet. Mihawk's hand shot up, grabbing one of the legs out of midair and stopping Draconian's spinning. His sword shot out and cut another line of blood across Draconian's chest. Immediately he let go of Draconian's leg and kicked him in the chest.

Draconian was sent flying back, his body scattering sand as he thudded against the ground. Immediately he felt a large stinging in his wounds as sand started to creep into the cuts, but once more he set aside the pain and started to get back up.

Mihawk brought his sword up and slashed it down to slam into the sand. The strength of the strike sent a force through the air straight towards Draconian.

Draconian brought both of his swords up and slammed them down in likeness to his father, sending a blast of fire to oppose the blast heading for him.

The two blasts hit, creating a small sandstorm that circled around the two as they battled it out. The force only lasted for a second, however, as the blast from Mihawk cut through Draconian's fire and headed once more for Draconian himself.

Draconian brought both of his swords up, blocking the main force of the blast but still being blown back to once more stumble through the sand a little.

Draconian pulled himself up, growling in frustration as he looked at Mihawk, who seemed preoccupied with checking the edge of his sword.

"Okay, that's it, time for me to get serious." Draconian whispered as he brought his flaming scimitar up before him. "Dragon Whirlwind Strike!"

The sword started to spin at a blurring speed like it had done so many times in the past, but this time something different happened. A blast of fire shot out of the spinning sword and headed towards Mihawk, accompanied by a barrage of fireballs surrounding it.

Mihawk cocked an eyebrow as he witnessed this. "Is that really the best you can do son?" He then shot off to the side of the blast and ran towards where Draconian should have been.

Halfway along the length of the blast the side of the fire erupted as Draconian shot out, turning a little in midair so that his back was now facing his father.

"Dragon Kick!"

Mihawk brought the flat of his sword up to block Draconian's foot as it shot out, making Mihawk skid back as it slammed into his sword.

Once he had stopped skidding from the blow, Mihawk jumped forward and brought the Black Blade down on Draconian's exposed back. He then leaped over Draconian's body, striking his sword out at Draconian's own, which had come up in defense, and sending them out to Draconian's left.

As he landed, Mihawk brought his blade down to slash Draconian's chest, drawing another long line of blood down the middle.

With a shout, Draconian erupted his shoulders in fire leaped forward, trying to shoulder Mihawk hard in the chest. Instead of striking out with his sword, however, Mihawk jumped back out of Draconian's range, kicking his right shoulder as he did so.

Draconian gave a small grunt of pain as he sank to his knees. The kick to his shoulder had intensified the pain from the first cut, and that in itself had all the pain he pushed to the side earlier come rushing in. He started to take deep breaths as he tried to beat off all the exhaustion from the fight. His body began to slump towards the ground, all the pain and exhaustion just made him want to lie down, just for a seconds, just to let go of the swords which had turned heavy in his hands.

The swords, they were heavy, but that didn't matter. They signified that he was still in a fight, and he never quits during a fight, he either fights till he wins or until it's literally impossible for him to fight any more.

So he picked himself up, inch by inch he got up to his fully height and brought both of his swords back more to the left from where they were earlier sent. The fire on the swords increased, going back so far that it looked like a tail, and through gritted teeth Draconian got out the words he was barely able to say.

"Attack fusion..." Draconian ran forward, ignoring every bit of pain and running faster than he had ever run before, his whole body a blur.

"Dragon Sweeping Slash!"

Mihawk's left hand went to his pendant as his right raised his sword, ready for his son's attack. He didn't have to wait long, as Draconian got to him in under a second.

Both of Draconian's blades slashed forward with a speed not many could match, except of course Mihawk.

Mihawk's Black Blade slashed up in unison with Draconian's swords, hitting the swords which such force that they were knocked out of his hands to go flying in the air above.

Draconian's body just stopped, his mouth wide, as an intense pain erupted from his chest. Slowly he looked down to see Mihawk's left hand raised, holding a small dagger which was stabbed into the very middle of Draconian's chest.

Mihawk leaped up and kicked Draconian hard in the chest with his left foot, pushing him back so that his body slid off the dagger. At the same time, Mihawk's right foot came over and smashed into the side of Draconian's face, turning him over so that he landed face first on the ground.

Pain radiated throughout Draconian's body, more than any physical pain he had ever felt. He couldn't ignore the pain any longer like he had before, it was just too much now. He could feel the reverberations through the ground as his swords thudded by either side of his head.

But throughout all the pain, there was only one thing that went through his mind. _The fight wasn't over_. He still wouldn't give up, he'd fight until he died or got knocked out. So he raised his hands up and pushed against the ground. At first he was only able to raise himself a few centimeters, he couldn't even feel his arms anymore, but once he got one of his knees under him he was able to move slightly faster.

His hands shakily went out and grasp the handles of his swords, using the leverage to help himself up, and now he was only half completed. His swords dug themselves into the ground as the weight on them increased, and after a minute Draconian was finally up and ready once more.

A sharp pain erupted in the back of his head and all that Draconian saw was darkness.

* * *

Peace, calm, relaxation. That's all that went through his mind as Draconian floated through the pool of darkness. He felt as if a great weight had been taken off his shoulders, his exhaustion had finally been eliminated. Now all he wished was to stay like this forever.

But something didn't seem right, it felt as if he had forgotten something, he couldn't even remember how he had gotten to this point. Well, the last thing he remembered was... he couldn't pinpoint it. So he dug deep into his memory, grasping at anything he could take a hold of.

Let's see... his father! Yes, there was something about that man that jogged a recent memory. And... something to do with his swords. Did he take them to his father? No, he hated the man, why would he do that? Well, if he hated him then why was he in this little equation?

Hmm, why was it that he ad been searching for his father in the first place? It was something to do with revenge, and to get that was to fight. That must be it, he was in a fight, that's where the swords came in, he must have gotten knocked out.

Wait, he was in a fight. Then what the hell was he still doing here? Of all the things he taught himself, the most important was to always continue the fight, no matter what condition you're in.

So Draconian started to search, fighting through his unconsciousness and trying to wake up. Through the darkness of his mind Draconian spotted a small light, and with a big mental push he started to head towards it.

The going was tough as exhaustion tried to sweep him back into that comfortable zone of relaxation. A few times he had been drawn back a little bit, only to remember the fight and shove on with even more determination. So finally, after many long minutes, Draconian got to the light, and with a big push jumped through it.

Draconian's eyes snapped open as he jumped up, shouting a call to battle. Soon, though, he fell back down as the shout turned into a cry of pain.

"If you want those wounds to heal at all I suggest that you stay still."

Draconian gave a small growl as he looked at his father, who was once again lying against a palm tree. Draconian himself was also laying against a palm tree, although that was because of his injuries. His vest was off and bandages covered most of his upper body. A blazing fire was constructed between the two, lighting up the night air and casting long shadows on the edges of the little spot of land.

"About time you woke up," Mihawk said from across the fire, "you've been out for a long time, the night's been up for a couple of hours."

"Why should you care about how well I'm doing, you didn't even give a shit when you left me and my mom!"

Mihawk gave a sigh. "Draconian, you have to realize that I never knew your mother was pregnant."

"I already know that, but that's not the point. You abandoned her for, for what? Just lazing about the sea? Do you even know that she still loves you?"

Mihawk stared into the fire, a small smile playing on his lips. "I hoped, and I still love her as much as I did before."

"Then why the hell did you leave!" Draconian's hands wandered around the area, until he noticed that his swords were leaning against the tree that Mihawk was lying against.

"I left because I loved your mother."

Draconian gave a small sneer for a split second. "That's the worst excuse I've ever heard, if you truly loved her you would have stayed."

"Draconian," Mihawk lifted his head so that both pairs of hawk eyes met, "I was being chased by the navy, I had to leave."

"So, you were being chased by the navy, you could have at least come back once in a while."

Mihawk's eyes softened slightly. "If I came back they would have most likely found out about your mother, and let's just say sometimes navy men can be as ruthless as pirates. I didn't want your mother to get hurt."

Draconian's mouth gaped open as his hate seemed to go cold and crack. Throughout all his life, of all the possibilities he had come up with, he had never thought of this. His hate had twisted every single thought about Mihawk until he couldn't think of any good scenario.

"Yeah, but... just a few times would have been alright, you should have..." He tried to fight back what had just happened to him, tried to bring the hate back up.

Mihawk slowly shook his head. "Even one more time would have probably tipped off the navy, and then they would have come to the town and found out about me and your mother. The best case scenario would have been that they ask her a few questions, but I don't even want to think of the worst case."

Draconian started to take deep breaths as he took this in and tried to twist it around so that he could hate Mihawk more, but right now the most hate he had was directed towards himself.

"But I tell you this, Draconian, if I knew that I had a son I would have come back to that town and keep you safe."

The crack in Draconian's hatred grew until it shattered all the rage he had towards his father. His head drooped down as sorrow for his stupid thoughts started to slowly envelop him.

Mihawk stood up and walked around the fire, getting down to one knee when he was next to his son. "You never truly hated me, did you? I could see it in your eyes before, you tried to cover up all your sadness by blaming your problems on me and building a wall of hate."

Draconian's voice was slightly choked up as he answered. "When I was a kid, all that I ever remembered was the other children spending time with their fathers, while all that I had was mom. Combine that with the fact that almost every person in town hated me because of who my father was and I got one of the loneliest people in the world. True, I still had mom, but I just wish I could have actually had a father figure, maybe someone like Shanks."

This last thing gave Mihawk pause, so he knew Shanks huh? He decided he might bring it up later.

Tears started to slowly flow down Draconian's face. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry that I blamed everything on you, you didn't deserve it. I'm just so, so sorry." The tears started to come a little faster as Draconian's head bobbed with sobs.

Mihawk bent down and did something that would shock the world if it saw it. He embraced his son and rested his head on his shoulder. Slowly, Draconian lifted his arms and wrapped them around his father, sharing an embrace that he would have thought impossible a few hours before.

It's amazing how fast hate can be destroyed by just saying the right words.

* * *

"So, you've eaten Mera Mera, the burning fruit."

"Yeah, sounds right."

It was a few hours later, the two had been awake talking. Mostly Mihawk had been asking the questions, wanting to know about Diana and how she was doing, listening as Draconian told him about some of his adventures, stuff like that.

"Well, I personally think you use it quite well. Of course you'll need to use it a lot better than that to defeat me in a fight, but for where you are right now, not bad."

"Yeah, well I'm sure that I caught you slightly off guard when I burst through the fire. I saw the surprise in your eyes for a split second."

"And may I remark that that move was well planned, I don't even recall any of the other six emperors doing a move that sneaky, but I'm not saying that they would fall under it."

Draconian's face took on a questioning air. "Other six emperors? So you're one of the Seven Emperors of the Sea, I'm surprised that I haven't heard that before."

"And I bet that f you still knew you would have come at me just as hard as you did today, you're a Mihawk and I wouldn't expect anything less. Speaking of hard that kick you gave to my sword had some nice force behind it."

"Well, you can't really be that surprised by that, I mean I did train my whole life, or at least most of it."

Mihawk gave a slight chuckle. "That you did, that you did..." His gaze traveled once more to the fire, soon to be drawn back up with a curious spark in it. "I remember you mentioned Shanks earlier."

A small smiled played on Draconian's face as he stared at the stars. "Yeah, when I was a kid he came into my town for about two months, and yet in that short time he turned into like a father for me. He was probably the only person who thought that I would become a great swordsman of my own and not because I'm your son." Draconian's gaze traveled back down to look back at his father. "Do you know him?"

Mihawk gave a small nod. "He's a... good acquaintance of mine, I think that's the word. He's also one of the Seven Emperors."

For a split second Draconian's eyes widened, only to come back down as he stared once more at the stars. "Wow, I knew he was good but I didn't think that good. I might have to challenge him to a fight someday." Mihawk gave Draconian an odd look, which he knew would happen. "I didn't say soon, I said someday, as in when I'm better."

With a smirk, Mihawk raised his hands behind his head and moved his body around, soon falling asleep.

Draconian gave a little chuckle at seeing this and, in the same manner as his father, moved to a comfortable position and slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

A few days later Draconian's wounds had fully closed, leaving behind some big scars and a soreness that would last for a few days. Draconian was kind of surprised at how well the wounds had been treated, but thinking back to the fights his father had probably gotten himself into in his younger days it made a lot more sense.

Mihawk was standing in front of his son's ship as Draconian came out of the small area in which they had kept the fire. Draconian walked up to his father, belting his katana to the left side of his waist as he did.

"What took you so long?"

"Sorry, it took a while to belt my scimitar onto my back, especially since my whole body's sore." Now both of them were standing just feet apart, creating an odd feeling that had Draconian rubbing the back of his head. "So... I guess this is till next we meet."

"I hope the next time we meet you improve you fighting considerably, it's hard to find a challenge in these waters anymore." This drew a small chuckle from both Draconian and Mihawk.

From under his right arm Mihawk produced a stack of papers and handed them to Draconian. "Here, think of it as an apology for not being there."

"Um, thanks. What is it?" He said as he took the stack of paper.

"Wanted adds of pirates that I've been keeping for a long time." A small smirk pulled at his lips. "I think you might find them useful in finding the right people to help 'improve' your skill."

A full smile spread itself across Draconian's face. "Thank you, I promise to 'practice' with each person until I've gone beyond even your skill."

Hawkeye clapped Draconian on the shoulder. "Now that's what I wanted to here, spoken like a true Mihawk!" He then turned him to face the ship and gave him a little push. "Now get going."

Instead of just getting up a ramp so that he could climb, Draconian jumped straight into the air to land on top of the dragon head. He was just about to jump onto the deck of the ship when he heard his father shout behind him.

"Wait, I forgot something!" Mihawk fished inside of his coat and pulled out some object, which he immediately threw at Draconian. "You'll need that when sailing the Grand Line!"

Draconian easily snatched the small object out of the air and stared at it in his hand. It was a small glass orb about three inches in diameter, inside it was a elongated diamond, one side painted red, hanging on a string. The object was known as a Grand Compass.

Draconian close his hand and held the object to his heart. "Thank you once again." He jumped off the dragon head and hit the deck, instantly turning to the rail to stare out at his father. "I hope that I can make you proud some day!"

With that he turned around and started setting the sails so that he could get off the island. With a soft smile, Hawkeye Mihawk turned around and started to head for his small boat, and under his breath so that his son couldn't hear he spoke.

"You already have."

* * *

You know, I wanted to write some more after this, but I just felt this would be a great ending, tell me if I'm wrong or not. Now, I would like to address two attacks in this chapter you might want to know about. First is the attack fusion, which as you can guess is him combining two attacks. In this one he combined dragon sweep and dragon slash(which used to be called dragon blitz but I decided would be better as slash), and if you remember in both attacks Draconian brings the swords to the left and back. Now, you also might be confused with or just want to know about 'blades of the dragon brethren.' You see, it's not a specific formation like Zoro's 'oni giri,' it's more like a 'style,' kind of like when Zoro did 'silver wolf swords' when he was fighting the octopus merman guy. Oh, which reminds me, if any of you remember that guy's name could you tell me, because I'm going to need it for the Arlong chapter. Now, I really hoped that you liked this chapter, it was one of the ones that I like to call the 'defining' chapters, the ones that have something special to do. The fight with Buggy was a defining chapter because it was Draconian's first true fight in the story and because it was when he got the cursed fruit. Well, I'm rambling on, I should get to reviews.

**Resident-Evil-playa: **I'm a little surprised that you like dragon sledgehammer the best. Although, come to think of it, I've kind of grown a soft spot for it. Um... I highly doubt that I'll use the move you suggested, it just isn't me(plus it's way too long). I'm glad that you love my details, I personally believe that people should get the full description of things otherwise they won't know exactly what a person looks like or what's happening. Okay, I should get the next chapter out before your hibernation, and hopefully me and Anters will get Ch. 8 out before then too.

**Iwin Ulose: **Thanks for the compliment on my creativity, I pride myself on being a very creative writer(it's why my fight scenes are so damn good). Actually, I have heard of Portgas, it was when I was going through the internet and looking for info on One Piece. I don't really know how close to him I am, I just saw the episode where Nami gets the fever. And of course I'm going to have a battle with him, I'll probably write it as soon as I see the arc he's in. Oh, and the reason he uses it as his main weapon is because he's a pansy.

**Dollar1: **Actually, the reason that I didn't have him fight Gin was because I thought that Gin might leave Krieg, so that's how I wrote it. Now, as to the fruit, if the specific way Draconian uses the fruit is different than how it's used in the story, then why don't we pretend that something was different with the two fruits. Maybe one of them was kind of rotten, maybe since Draconian ate the whole fruit his powers were slightly different. Oh, and I highly doubt that Draconian and Mihawk have the same fighting style, seeing as they use different kinds of weapons and Draconian trained himself, so there's no way he could know how Mihawk fought.

Okay, that's it, I should get the next chapter up quicker than I got this one up. And yes, Arlong is next(I'm thinking of having it so that Draconian only attacks his body with physical, a.k.a. non-sword, attacks).


	6. A Day at the Park

A Day at the Park

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

Draconian walked into his cabin, the wanted papers under his arm, and immediately headed to his small shelf of books. Without even looking at the shelf Draconian's free hand deftly snatched a book off the top and tossed it onto his desk.

The light shining into the porthole was bright enough to see by, so Draconian didn't have to light any of his candles for vision as he plopped down in his chair and set down the pile of wanted pictures. He started to flip through the book, which was about half filled with maps of the East Blue.

"Let's see... what's next?" He landed on a page that showed a map of the whole East Blue, and immediately started to go through the pile of wanted papers.

Almost as soon as he started looking, Draconian plucked out two different pictures. One of them was Buggy the Clown while the other was Don Krieg. Getting up, Draconian headed towards one of those boards that you pin stuff up on and stuck the pictures of Buggy and Krieg right next to each other. He traced his hand over each paper, burning an X over each picture.

Draconian picked up the pile of papers and ruffled through them, looking for a good name, something that had a high bounty but not higher than he could handle at the moment. Soon he had discarded most of them, about three quarters seemed a little over his range, and there were some that didn't even seem worth his time, leaving him with just a few left.

He traveled back to his chair behind his desk, but on the way he accidentally ht his shin on the desk's corner and dropped a paper. With a sigh he bent down and picked it back up, staring at it with a curious look on his face as he once more plopped down in his chair.

The paper said Arlong, and the bounty was a good twenty million beli. "Hmm, Arlong eh? Nice price on this one's head, looks like a nice challenge."

Draconian once more flipped through his maps, almost immediately coming upon one with the words "Arlong Park" written across the stretch of land.

"I thought I'd seen his name somewhere before." Draconian once more got up and headed towards his board, and with chuckle tacked up the sheet of paper next to that of Buggy and Krieg. He circled his finger around Arlong's picture, drawing a charred line wherever his finger went.

"Well, it seems that I'm headed towards Arlong Park." And with that, he went back to his maps and started to pour over a course of travel to get to his next opponent.

* * *

Draconian's back was leaning against the mast, his arms crossed, as he stared out at the approaching land. It had been about five days since he'd poured over his maps, and now his ship was finally approaching Arlong Park. So far all he could see was a strip of land; he was too far away to make out any actual thing on the shore.

During the five day wait, Draconian had pored over all the things he had remembered hearing about Arlong, or to be more specific, what he heard about mermen. From what he heard they looked pretty much like humans, except for the different colors and some fish-like qualities. They were also supposed to have more power than a regular person.

This was definitely going to be an interesting meeting.

Draconian blinked his eyes and looked at the distant water. He could have sworn that he'd seen something. An instant later he spotted sprays of water go into the air. It was followed by another spray, this one slightly closer.

Draconian walked towards the front of his ship to look at the sea. The sprays of water had stopped, now it was just a continually spray as something seemed to cut through the water. Draconian couldn't tell what it was, but he could tell that it was big.

He backed up a little, making sure that he wasn't too close to the water when the thing got near.

After a while the spray finally got right up in front of his ship, instantly stopping. For a few seconds nothing happened, until a huge explosion of water blasted up into the air, and standing in front of Draconian's ship was something that was definitely odd.

From what he could see, the whole top half of it was a giant cow without any legs, it had blue spots all over where there was supposed to be black. He didn't need to look at the bottom half, as he already knew it was just like a fish's. He knew of these creatures, or at least these kinds, as the top half came in many varieties.

It lowered its head to stare at Draconian, its mouth opened to reveal a row of very sharp, hungry teeth. Its eyes had turned a red color as its hunger drove it to Draconian's scent.

With almost blurring speed, Draconian jumped up onto the dragon head so that his face was now mere inches away from the creature. His eyes were narrowed and full of challenge, fire flickering at the edges, as he stared into the cow's face.

At first the cow didn't respond, but as it took in Draconian's glare it slowly started to become unsure that it was a good idea to try and eat something like this. After about a minute of the stare down, the cow was in a very difficult decision, and it was hard to tell whether it would attack or not.

Draconian snapped his right arm out in front of him, creating a small explosion of fire right in front of the cow's face, scaring its formerly unsure body so that it plunged back into the deep sea which it had come from. A chuckle escaped from Draconian's lips as the explosion of water sprayed his face.

The ship continued on towards Arlong Park, the giant cow long gone to where it had originally come from, and Draconian had gone back to leaning against the mast. Hid left hand rested upon his katana while his right was against the mast. After a few minutes of moving through the waves, Draconian started to wonder what mermen looked like exactly. He doubted that they all looked the same, but they had to have some things in common, like regular humans.

He wouldn't have to wait long for an answer, though, as he heard a thud over to the right. Turning his head but otherwise leaving his body as it was, Draconian looked over at what had to be a merman sitting on top of the ship's railing.

Mostly he resembled human, his whole body was just like any normal human, if anything he was a little thinner, but that could just be him. He had a long face, and his hair was a dark blonde. He also wore a blue shirt with shorts, and he had a necklace of golden beads going across his chest. The only things that labeled him as a merman was his skin, which was a sky blue, and of course his webbed hands. The thing that drew your attention most was his lips, which were just like any normal person's, except they were bigger. They started at one side of his face and went to his other, they were also kind of sticking out, as if someone had grabbed them and pulled and they'd stayed like that.

"Okay kid, now what are you doing here?" His voice was like any others, except that it had a little aquatic sound mixed in.

Draconian turned his body to face the merman and crossed his arms. "I should be asking you the same question; this is my ship after all."

"Don't get smart with me, boy, now turn around and leave or I'll have to destroy your little boat."

"Oh really," Draconian raised his head so that the merman could see his eyes, "and how exactly are you going to do that."

For a few seconds the merman was silent, and when he finally spoke it was with a slight shock. "Well, I have many ways, young Mihawk."

A grin spread on Draconian's face. "Oh you noticed? And I was trying to keep it a secret, oh well what am I going to do now?"

"You're starting to get annoying, boy." He made a spitting motion, and what looked like a small thing of water darted out of his mouth at a speed equal to a bullet. It smashed into Draconian's chest before he could do anything and sent him smashing back against the mast.

With a shake of his head, Draconian got back his bearings and once more faced the merman, He wasn't bleeding, the projectile was just water after all. "You know, I don't appreciate it when I get attacked on my own ship."

"Then I guess you're not going to be appreciating me much, now are you?" He once more shot out another thing of water.

Draconian's hand shot out in front of the projectile, blocking it with his palm. It stung where it hit, but Draconian didn't show any of the pain on his face.

The merman drew back his head, shooting it forward to send a barrage of the little water projectiles.

This time Draconian was ready, and he dodged out of the way, leaving the little projectiles to hit his mast and create many small dents. He whipped both of his swords out and snapped them forward in an intricate series of movements to block the other oncoming water projectiles.

As soon as the merman stopped shooting, Draconian turned his head to look over the damages caused by the attacks. The mast and deck around it were covered with many dents and holes.

After looking over the damages, Draconian turned his gaze back to the merman. "Oh you'll pay for that."

"I'd like to see you try, human." The merman jumped off the railing and shot towards Draconian.

Draconian jumped back out of the way, pressing his feet against the mast and pushing off.

"Tic-Tac-Dragonfire!"

As Draconian sailed through the air, his feet came up and his body did a backwards flip while going forward. His blades came up and slashed two long lines of blood starting from the merman's abs and going to his shoulders. Draconian sailed over the merman's body, twisting a little as he landed so that he was now facing the merman's back. He brought both of his swords back up and slashed two horizontal cuts against the back of the merman.

The swords were slipped back into their sheaths as Draconian grabbed the merman's arm. He jumped backwards, pulling the merman with him and hoisting his body over the shoulder.

"Get off my ship!" Draconian threw him towards the rail.

The body went hurtling over the rail, his legs smacking the edge of the high rail as he went over. Before he could completely fall, though, his hand shot up and grabbed the top of the rail.

Draconian ran forward as the hand started to pull the body up, and at the same time that the merman got back up, Draconian himself jumped up on the rail right next to him. He then jumped sideways at the merman and kicked his feet out to smash into his chest and send him hurtling over the side.

Draconian leaned on the rail and looked over the side, watching as the merman started to swim back towards the shore. He gave a sigh. "Well, they're going to be expecting me, which takes away the surprise element."

He turned around and headed towards the dragon head, leaning against the back of it as he stared out at the ever approaching shore.

After a few more minutes, Draconian had finally arrived at the shore of Arlong Park, if you could call it a shore. The whole ground seemed to be made out of concrete, but the thing that drew his eyes was what was in the middle of that concrete.

Most of the ground was covered in the ruins of what looked like it used to be a huge building, and the ground in itself was covered in small craters. Right in front of the ruins was sitting a large amount of mermen, and immediately Draconian spotted the one that he had faced earlier.

It looked like he was whispering into the ear of the biggest merman of the lot, and from what Draconian remembered, this was Arlong. The muscles of his body were huge, his chest was wide and thick, and his arms looked like they could have ripped a person in half. Now, don't confuse this muscle with slowness, because from what Draconian could see, this guy did not look slow. The color of his skin was a dark blue, and he had the tattoo of a red sun on the left side of his chest. He was wearing shorts and a yellow Hawaiian style shirt, unbuttoned of course. Like all the others he had webbed hands, but they were more like a regular person's hands with the webbing between them so that he could move his fingers without limit. His mouth looked like it was always open as it featured a row of big, sharp teeth. Hanging over his mouth was his long nose, which probably went out to almost half a foot long. It looked like the nose of a sawfish, so that it was many triangles back-to-back. On top of his head was what looked like one of those wool hats you wear when it's cold, except that the earflaps were missing. Right behind it was pointing up a shark-like fin, and cascading down from his head onto his back was a mane of wild black hair.

Draconian hopped up on the dragon head and jumped off, landing on the ground in a crouch. He got his body back up and started to head towards Arlong, who had been staring at his ship as soon as the merman speaking to him had left.

Arlong's mouth twisted into a sneer of disgust as he laid eyes on Draconian, who was walking towards Arlong in a businesslike manner. When Draconian was about half his ship's length away stopped walking, staring at Arlong through the uncomfortable silence.

"So, pe-uman, what is it you want?"

Draconian's voice was calm. "Simple really, I want to fight you. That's it."

Arlong's sneer grew bigger. "And why should I fight a worthless pe-uman like you, anyways?"

"Well," Draconian stated, "I'm going fight you one way or another; you might as well comply with it."

"A stupid, weak, stinky pe-uman like you isn't even worth my time, now go away and leave me alone."

Draconian chuckled. "Weak? Tell me, Arlong, how exactly did your park get destroyed, I mean I doubt that other mermen did it."

Arlong's face contorted into one of rage, a growl escaped his lips. "I'll let you know that I lost this to a mighty fighter, a lot stronger than you by the looks of things."

"Yeah," a voice erupted from the crowd of mermen, "that Straw Hat kid is powerful."

Arlong's eyes widened as anger flooded his face. He turned around in the direction that the voice had come. "Who said that! Get out here!"

Slowly the small crowd parted as a nervous looking merman walked out and came in front of Arlong. Immediately, his shirt was hauled up by the collar and he was thrown all the way to the other side of the ruin.

All the while Draconian was chuckling, which soon turned into laughter. "Hahaha! You lost to a kid? Is that why you won't face me, Arlong, because you're afraid you might lose once more to a kid?"

Arlong gave a growl. "Fine, pe-uman, if you want a fight you'll get one. You," he pointed to someone in the crowd, "come here and wipe this kid out, I could use the entertainment."

From out of the crowd came the oddest looking merman that Draconian had seen so far. This one didn't even seem to have any similarities to humans except for the fact that it stood on two legs. But the legs were the only thing regular, as he had six arms, each one of them having small rings going up its length like an octopus suction cup, except Draconian doubted that the guy actually used them. He was wearing a red and white striped shirt, obviously with no sleeves since of how hard it would be to find. His head was smaller in comparison to his body, and on his forehead was tattooed the same sun as was on Arlong's chest. His mouth was cylindrical and looked like a trumpet. His hair was pretty odd, it was white and stuck up into five spikes, one of them sticking straight up, the top part seemed sliced off actually, two going to either side, and two more sticking out diagonally. All in all, he looked like a big, muscled, walking octopus.

"Yes sir. You guys, give me your swords." His hands went out as he caught six swords that were thrown at him. He the turned to face Draconian. "You're going down, the last guy I faced might have beaten me with only three swords, but there's no way I'm losing with a guy with two."

"You might want to think again, especially when you're fighting a Mihawk. Hasn't anyone ever told you it's not what you have but how you use it?" He slipped both of his swords out of the sheaths, this time _not _lighting the blades on fire, and put them up in front of himself as an invitation to fight.

"Mihawk, Zoro, it doesn't matter who you are, I'm going to beat you anyway."

'_Hmm,_ _Zoro eh? Interesting.' _Draconian thought as he readied his swords.

The octopus merman started off by touching the tips of each sword together, so that the blades looked like the points of a hexagon. He rushed forward, the points of all six swords leading so that they point at Draconian.

Draconian sidestepped, the outside blades brushing past only centimeters away from his skin. He brought his left hand up and smashed the hilt of the scimitar into the face of the passing merman. After the hilt connected with the face, Draconian twisted his body and to the left and slashed the merman's back with his katana.

The merman arched his back, turning around to slash at Draconian with a small shout, only to find that he'd already jumped back.

He stomped his foot. "Argh, come over here! Are you afraid to face me now that you've gotten me angry!"

"No, I just thought it might be wise to dodge your swords so that I don't get run through."

With another shout, the merman put the swords back into the same position as before and once more rushed towards Draconian. This time, instead of sidestepping, Draconian vaulted his body over the swords and over the merman's body. Automatically, the merman stopped his rush and shoved his shoulders up, trying to hit Draconian with them.

Draconian's feet came down on the shoulders, and using the force of the push he launched himself high into the air. He tilted his body so that his head was pointing down and brought his swords up in preparation for the fall.

The merman brought all six swords up, bringing the hilts together and spinning them in a circle much like Draconian's own whirlwind attack. "I'm going to slice and dice you!"

Element gave a fierce growl in challenge. "Like hell you will. Dragon Whirlwind!"

He brought his scimitar out in front of him and started to spin the blade. It may have been smaller than the merman's own attack, but when the scimitar met the cutlasses Draconian's drop stopped cold as he hung upside down. Sparks flew as the swords scraped against each other, creating a small fountain of golden light between Draconian and the merman.

Draconian angled the scimitar and turned his body to the side, and soon he was falling off to the side, barely missing the spinning cutlasses. He whipped his scimitar into its sheath and gripped the handle of the katana with both hands.

"Dragon Slash!"

Draconian spun in the air before he hit the ground, bringing the katana up and slashing a long line of red from the merman's right waist to his left shoulder.

With an agitated shout, the merman once more stomped his foot. "Ooh, now I'm getting really mad!" And with a shout he launched himself forward, furiously slashing with all six swords.

Draconian leaped back, making sure he wasn't right next to the merman's body, and fended off the swords that got near. He grabbed the hilt of his scimitar and pulled it back out of its sheath, whipping it in front of him to block two of the swords that had come close.

As Draconian fended off the attacks, he continually had to back up as the merman advanced, not wanting to get too close in case he somehow got trapped. After a while of this, though, he started to notice that he was getting close to the water's edge, obviously part of the merman's plan. It was a lot worse for Draconian than the merman could have thought, since he only thought the water would give him an advantage, he had no clue about Draconian's powers, which meant that if he got in the water he would drown.

Draconian jumped back, putting his feet at the very edge of water and making it so that the two were out of swords reach. With a grin, the merman readied all six of his swords for launching a final push and started forward. At the same time, however, Draconian shot himself forward at an almost blurring speed, both swords at his side.

"Blades of the Dragon Brethren!"

The swords shot out at a blurring speed, immediately switching to another sword once they had moved the one before aside. The speed of the attack looked like just a wild charge, but the swords moved at an intricacy that only true swordsmen can understand. Each swipe of the sword that the merman tried was immediately sent away as Draconian's swords moved faster than they had ever before.

Soon Draconian pushed through the defenses of the six swords and struck at the merman's body, hitting him so fast that he couldn't even remember the number of hits he did. Finally Draconian jumped past the merman so that he was now away from the water, leaving the merman standing behind him, blood spraying from all the cuts covering his body.

As soon as he had landed on the other side, Draconian started to walk back towards Mihawk, thinking the battle over. That was, of course, until he heard the angry voice behind him.

"Okay! That's it! Now I'm REALLY mad! I won't take any more!"

With a sigh, Draconian turned around to once more face the odd merman. "Weren't you already mad?"

The merman turned around and stomped his feet again. "Yeah, but now I'm even madder!" And with a rage filled shout, the merman's eyes narrowed to a red gleam and he started swinging his swords through the air in a fury.

One of the mermen put his hand on his head. "Oh god, he's not going to do this again, is he? He'll destroy the place!"

"Ah, let him." Arlong waved him off. "It's destroyed anyways."

Suddenly, what looked like a tornado made from the wind of the slashes surrounded the merman and traveled up. It didn't seem as strong as a regular tornado, on it's own it probably wouldn't actually do that much, but it was still a measure of what was happening at that moment.

The merman shot himself forward, blades swinging furiously, towards Draconian. The force of his charge dug a huge trench in the concrete, and to all watching it looked like Draconian was doomed.

With the calmness and grace of someone who had all the time in the world, Draconian swung both of his swords up to cross in front of his chest and rest the back of the blades against his shoulders. Other than that he did stood completely still, did nothing but wait.

A few of the mermen started to laugh as they saw him just stand there, obviously thinking he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell. But everyone's skeptically looks were washed completely away as he snapped his eyes open the same time as fire erupted along the length of the blades and behind his back.

A few tried to tell their fellow merman to stop, but it was too late, he was just too close to stop, and none of their full warnings got through before Draconian struck.

"Dragon Cross-Fire!"

The swords came down, cutting through the wind and swords, releasing a huge burst of fire with it that traveled up the small tornado. The merman's body went flying over Draconian's back, his original momentum not able to stop the direction he was going. His whole body was slightly charred, and an X had been slashed into his body.

He landed with a sickening thud just feet away from Arlong, who at the moment was shaking his head in disbelief and exasperation. "Great, another person with Devil Fruit powers, do I have to take care of everything myself?"

"Don't worry sir, I'll take him." Out stepped forward a muscled, grey skinned merman with fins on his elbows and a braid of really long black hair, he looked like he had just come out of a dojo.

Arlong stood up and pushed him back, an annoyed sneer over his face. "Don't bother; he'll just beat you like that stupid blonde haired pe-uman did last time. I'll take care of him, since none of you pathetic excuses for evolution are too weak to do anything right."

And with a cracking of his knuckles, Arlong stepped forward so that he was now facing Draconian, whose swords were once more extinguished of fire. "Okay pe-uman, now I'll give you one chance to walk away, otherwise I'm going to have to kill you."

Draconian chuckled. "You know, you talk pretty tough for a guy whose place had just been destroyed by humans."

Arlong let forth a growl. "Then I take it that you want to die."

"A Mihawk never backs down, Arlong, and there's no way you're going to kill me today." And with swords raised, he beckoned towards Arlong. "Just bring it."

"Fine, it's your funeral." Arlong lunged forward, hands out and teeth snapping.

Draconian jumped to the side, slipping both of his swords away as he fell towards the ground and pressed his hands against the ground. He pushed himself back towards Arlong, who had just passed the spot Draconian was earlier standing, and kicked him in the side of his abdomen.

Arlong didn't even stumble from the blow, but instead grabbed Draconian's legs and prepared to throw him. That was, until the legs lit up in flames, making Arlong let go as the flames started to burn at his hands.

Arlong's face snapped to the side as a piece of concrete, which Draconian had just threw, smashed into its side. Draconian twisted his body, bringing his left hand swinging up to throw another, bigger, piece of concrete he had just picked up.

The piece of concrete went soaring towards Arlong, who opened his mouth and snatched the concrete out of the air. With a sickening crunch, Arlong snapped his mouth shut and crushed the concrete as if it was nothing. Pieces fell from his mouth as he looked down at Draconian, who had gotten back on his hands and now started to put his legs out wide and spin them.

"Dragon Hurricane!"

Draconian pushed up, swinging the flaming legs into Arlong and landing hit after hit on his chest, arms, and face. Arlong tried to make a grab for one of the legs, but Draconian snapped them back together, making Arlong's hand miss its spot, and kicked out at Arlong's chest.

This vaulted Draconian back in a flip and sent Arlong stumbling back a bit. Draconian landed on both feet, readying his stance as Arlong got his footing back.

With a shout, Arlong lunged forward, mouth open wide and baring his sharp teeth. He snapped his teeth towards Draconian's head, only hitting empty air as Draconian ducked out of the way.

Draconian twisted his body, placing his hands on the ground and pushing up, sending his feet smashing against the bottom of Arlong's jaw. He then brought both of his feet back down and jumped to the side, barely missing Arlong's fist as it punched the ground where he was just crouching, creating another small crater in the concrete.

As soon as Draconian landed back on his feet, Arlong had once more lunged forward with his mouth snapping towards him. Before Arlong could get to him, however, Draconian pulled out his katana and shoved it into the ground.

"Dragon Flip!"

Draconian pushed against the sword and flipped in the air where he was standing. His foot right sailed forward and up, smacking against the bottom of Arlong's jaw and tilting his head up so that he wouldn't be able to bite Draconian.

As he finished the flip, Draconian landed in a crouch, bringing his fist back as he did and igniting it in fire.

"Dragon Fist!"

He blasted the fist forward, smashing it against the now exposed abs of Arlong and making him double over. Draconian twisted his body so that he was crouched right next to Arlong's bowed head. He took his katana and once more shoved it into the ground, bringing his body up.

"Dragon Scissors!"

Draconian brought his left leg straight up and at the same time placed his right leg under Arlong's head. He then smashed his left leg down while sending his right leg up, slamming Arlong's back and neck in a vice.

Arlong fell down, and Draconian put both of his feet back under him, slipping his katana back into its sheath as he did. Before he could do anything else, Arlong's hand shot out and grabbed a hold of his leg, holding on despite the fire. He jumped back up from his position on the ground and spun his body, throwing Draconian towards the farthest end of the park.

As Draconian felt gravity pull his body back to the ground, he held his hands out to try and land gracefully. He only succeeded in lessening the pain from the landing, however, as his speed took his arms out from under him, sending him to smash against the ground.

With a laugh, Arlong started to walk towards Draconian, who was pushing himself back up from the ground. Before he could get completely up, Arlong started to run forward, arms up so that they could attack the fallen Draconian.

With a shout, Draconian pulled his feet under him and jumped up, shooting over Arlong's arms and spinning around, kicking down Arlong's left arm as he did so.

"Dragon Kick!"

Draconian's right foot shot out and smashed into Arlong's face, sending him flying back to land hard on the ground. After he had landed, Draconian had shot off towards Arlong, who had already started to get back up.

Before Arlong even knew anything, Draconian had already gotten in front of him. He lifted his left leg and placed it on Arlong's knee, using the leverage to jump up and swing his right foot back.

"Dragon Sledgehammer!"

His foot swung forward, smashing against Arlong's mouth and sending him right back down to the ground.

With a small groan, Arlong sat back up and brought his hand up in front of his mouth. As he took it away, Draconian could make out a few teeth in his palms, and there were many holes in his mouth where the teeth had fallen out.

A grin stretched itself from the right side of Draconian's mouth as he looked down at Arlong's now useless mouth. That was, until Arlong put his hand into his mouth and literally pulled out his ring of teeth, letting it fall to the ground beside him as another set instantly grew back in its place.

Draconian gave a sigh. "Damn."

Arlong put his hand in his mouth and pulled this new set out, only to be easily replaced by another set, which was then also pulled out.

Arlong got back up on both feet and held both of his arms out, each of his hands were holding a set of teeth as if they were castanets, and he made a few snaps of the teeth as a warning of what would happen if Draconian got "bitten" by one of them.

Arlong lunged forward, snapping the teeth out in front of him as he tried to grab onto Draconian. The first "punch" was easily dodged by Draconian as he ducked to the side, only to go into a roll in the other direction as the other pair of teeth went in low.

Arlong then thrust both of the teeth down to Draconian's new position, which was barely dodged as Draconian shot between Arlong's legs and appeared behind him. He then thrust both of his elbows back to smash into the back of Arlong's knees, trying to bring him down to his knees but only succeeding in making him stagger a little.

Draconian turned around and stood back up, immediately hopping up and kicking into the small of Arlong's back with both of his feet, sending Arlong down on one knee. As son as Arlong had got down on one knee, Draconian rushed forward with his shoulder out, hopefully trying to get the merman completely down.

With a jerk Draconian stopped in his tracks and jumped back a little, barely avoiding Arlong as he spun around and shot out another pair of teeth in his direction.

Arlong got back on both feet, teeth held out so that Draconian didn't unexpectedly get too close and once more lunged his body towards Draconian.

Draconian jumped up and turned his body over, pushing Arlong's right arm out of the way as he did so, so that his feet were facing Arlong and his face was now looking at the ground.

"Dragon Stampede!"

His legs rapidly shot out, striking Arlong's chest over and over, so fast it was like two or three feet hitting Arlong when there was only supposed to be one. He continued this for some time, until delivering one final, solid thrust that sent Arlong hurtling backwards, a blast of fire accompanying him.

Before he had gotten too far away, however, Arlong had snapped his right arm forward, grabbing a hold of Draconian's left leg with the teeth and idly throwing him to the side.

They both hit the ground at about the same time, the only difference being the place they landed and the fact that Draconian was now clutching his left leg. Amazingly, considering how fast Arlong recovers, Draconian was the first one to actually raise his upper body up.

His breath was slightly ragged as he looked at his left leg, the pain radiating from the teeth was intense, he wouldn't have been surprised if they were close to his bones. With shaking hands, he reached down and took hold of the teeth, slightly prying them apart.

A sharp pain went up his leg as he moved the teeth, signaling that obviously this was going to hurt. So, thinking it better to do it fast than slow, Draconian took a firm hold of the teeth and gave one fast tug to pry them apart, getting them out of his flesh. The pain made him cry out, but it was definitely worse than the alternative, as the sharpness of the pain quickly subsided to a dull throbbing.

Arlong had already gotten up and was walking towards Draconian, his right arm tossing the pair of teeth up and down. "You're really starting to get on my nerves, boy."

With a growl Draconian shot up, only to immediately fall back down on his right knee with a cry of pain, his left leg searing from the pressure on the ground. He hadn't expected the intense pain to still be there, he'll have to try and ignore it from here on.

Arlong gave a laugh. "What, is the little pe-uman hurt? Maybe I should end your pain for you." He held up his right hand, the teeth back in it, and made some snapping motions with it.

Draconian took a deep breath and slowly got back on his left leg. Pain shot up it, making him almost fall back down, but this time he had expected it, so he was able to ignore the pain and stand back up.

"Still some fight in you, boy? Well, I guess that's good, makes it all the more entertaining." He started forward, arm extended.

Through the pain in his leg, Draconian shot forward, flipping over Arlong's arm and landing his feet on either side of Arlong's neck, squeezing to make the hold tight as he did.

"Dragon Whirlybird!"

A spinning tunnel of fire formed itself around Draconian, traveling down his body and across his legs to spin around Arlong. He bent his body backwards so that his head was towards the ground and his back was almost up against Arlong's chest. His body started to twist as he got closer to the ground, bringing his feet, which were holding onto Arlong's neck, down with him, in the process tossing Arlong across the ground to land with a solid thump on the ground a good distance away.

Draconian landed on both of his feet, only to once again go down on his knee as a pain burst from his left leg, this one sharper than before. Once again he witnessed as Arlong got back up, this time turning towards the crowd of merman.

"You two!" He pointed at the pair closest to his position. "Get me my Saw Blade, now!"

They gave him a salute, heading off through the crowd. About a minute later, which Draconian spent trying to recuperate from the pain in his leg, the two had returned, carrying one of the biggest, oddest looking weapons that Draconian had seen.

The blade was huge, almost as big as Arlong himself, and the handle was long enough so that Arlong could hold it with both hands. Instead f one long blade, though, it was made out of a long row of triangular blades, kind of reminding Draconian of teeth. Each one of them had to be about a foot wide, if not more.

Arlong took the blade in his right hand, having tossed aside his teeth, and raised it to rest the flat side on his shoulder.

Draconian himself had gotten back up, the pain in his leg subsiding a little so that he could stand okay. He brought his left hand up, taking a hold of his scimitar and sliding it out of the sheath.

Arlong belted out a big laugh. "Hah! You're going to face me with that puny thing! You might as well fight me with a stick, because either way I'm going to snap your pathetic weapon in half."

Draconian's hand tightened around the handle as he muttered under his breath. "I wouldn't count on that."

Arlong jumped forward, holding the handle with both hands over his shoulder. He was met by Draconian, who ran forward, his flaming scimitar drawn down and back, almost touching the ground. Arlong brought the weapon down as Draconian swept his sword up.

"Dragon Sweep!"

The two weapons met, Draconian's coming from below as Arlong's came down from on top, and connected between two of the middle teeth.

They both stopped, deadlock.

All of the merman looked shocked, some of them even gasping, including Arlong, who's eyes had opened so wide that even his teeth looked smaller. But none of them were as shocked as they had been when they saw what happened next.

Draconian, fighting through the pain and pressure on his left leg, brought up his right hand and grasp the end of the scimitar's handle, joining his right hand. And with a small grunting sound, he started to slowly move both of the swords up, overpowering Arlong as he raised up the Saw Blade.

When both of the handles had gotten to Arlong's eyes level, Draconian turned his blade so that it pointed almost straight up and shoved the Saw Blade to the side. Immediately he jumped up as Arlong swept his now freed weapon to the side, trying to chop Draconian in half.

As Draconian jumped over the blade, his foot snapped out and smacked against the side of Arlong's head, but all that really did for Draconian was give his leg more pain.

Arlong once more swung his blade, making Draconian jump back and out of the way as soon as he landed. The immediateness of his actions had sent even more pain through Draconian's leg, making him stumble back as he landed away from Arlong.

"Shark and Destroy!"

Arlong shot forward, his body spinning in the air as he headed straight towards Draconian. His spinning was a blur, and all that Draconian could make out was the color of the Hawaiian shirt, blue, and his spinning teeth.

Draconian tried to jump out of the way, but because of his leg he wasn't fast enough, and Arlong slammed right into the left leg, his spinning teeth tearing it up to send even more pain through Draconian's body.

Blood sprayed from the leg, spattering the ground all around them as Draconian yelled out a cry of pain. With a slightly shaking arm, he raised his right hand up and placed it just above Arlong, and with a shout of defiance he sent out a huge blast of fire, sending Arlong flying back.

Draconian sank back down to his right knee as he clutched his left leg. All that he could see was blood covering it; the skin was torn up in the area where Arlong had hit him. He was sure that now he probably couldn't stand, otherwise even more damage would come to his leg. But he had to fight, so he would have to find a way to finish the fight quickly.

Smoke rose up from Arlong's body as he sat up, the shirt he had been wearing now in blackened tatters. He tilted his head to the both sides, cracking it, and with a chuckle raised his weapon once more to his shoulder. "Can't stay alive forever, and it looks to me as if you won't last much longer, it's impossible for you to dodge any of my attacks now. Shark and Destroy!" And with a laugh he launched himself forward once more, spinning through the air with his teeth bared.

Draconian put away his scimitar, placing both of his hands on the ground as he did so. Fire erupted from his shoulders, traveling down his shoulders until it reached his hands, and with a huge blast of fire pointed towards the ground, Draconian launched himself into the air, going high enough to dodge Arlong's spinning body below him.

With a shout of rage, Arlong stopped his sinning to land back on the ground. He looked up at Draconian, who was till floating in the air, supported by the fire. "Get back down here you coward! Stop running and just stay still!"

"You want me Arlong?" Draconian shouted from his point in the air. "If you want me then come and get me!" And with another burst of fire, this one from his hands and feet, he blasted higher into the air until he was about as high as the mast of a regular ship.

"Fine!" Arlong shouted. He then ran straight towards the edge of the water, which was pretty close to their position, the rage he was feeling created small dents in the concrete ground underneath him with each step.

He dived into the water, staying under it for about ten seconds. His body then erupted from the water, flying straight towards Draconian's position in the air.

"Shark and Destroy!"

His body once more started to spin, the teeth leading the way towards Draconian, who responded to this by raising his flame covered right leg straight up in the air and up over his head.

"Dragon Meteor!"

The leg smashed down upon Arlong's head spinning head, sending him shooting down to smash into the concrete below, creating a crater almost as wide as Draconian's small ship. A groan floated through the air as Arlong slowly got up, for once struggling through the pain from the attack.

Draconian blasted himself higher up, so high that he was probably at the height of the huge building that used to stand here. He whipped both blades out, covering them in fire as he started to spin his body.

"Attack fusion, Dragon Tornado Comet!"

A giant vortex of fire spun around Draconian, traveling all the way down to surround Arlong, closing off all means of escape. The fire on his feet grew bigger and started to swirl around his legs as they were pulled together. He then started to fall, his spinning, flame covered legs leading the way down towards where Arlong stood.

Arlong issued a growl. "Fine, you're going to encase me, then I'll just have to punish you for this." And with that, he grasped the handle of his weapon with both hands and held it low, readying the swing for when Draconian got close enough.

The speed of his fall steadily increased, and it only took a few seconds for Draconian to get to Arlong. The blade swept up, all of Arlong's force behind it, to strike at Draconian's feet.

Time seemed to slow for the second that foot met blade as a crack ran through the metal teeth, in an instant bending the blade so that it snapped in half, the top art falling to the side.

Arlong couldn't even get out a "how" as Draconian's spinning feet shot down, smashing themselves into his face and sending it down to smash against the ground. The force created another crater, inside the previous one, with Arlong's smashed face being pressed into its middle.

A snap was heard, and Draconian's body fell over as he clutched his now broken leg. The impact of the ground had pushed its strength beyond the limits, finally making it break.

But that wasn't what everyone else was watching. They were all staring at their commander, who was lying sprawled out, his head pressed into the concrete, knocked out cold.

Draconian's breaths were deep and ragged as pain shot through his entire body. He put away his swords and slowly got back up, instantly hopping on his right leg so as not to put any pressure on his left. He snapped his sheathed katana from his belt and put it on the ground, using it for support, and oh so slowly he headed back towards his ship, the sound of the self made walking stick sounding through the silence.

With a deep breath he bent his right leg, pushing off of the ground and jumping on his ship with a burst of fire, he didn't have it in him to try and get a ramp.

The first thing he did was adjust the sails and wheel a little bit, getting the ship out of the place and leaving the still silent crowd of mermen behind. As soon as that was done he went down to the storage area, getting out the medical supplies and a few other stuff, taking off his pants when he was ready.

The first thing he did was bandage up the leg, putting some ointments and other healing things underneath it, covering the area where the skin was torn up. He couldn't stitch anything up, seeing as there weren't any real "cuts" on the leg. Slowly, he put his ants back on, stopping a few times as pain shot up through him, until it was once again covered. He'd probably have to stop wearing this pair, seeing as the tears just ruined it.

From his small pile of stuff, Draconian picked up two good pieces of solid wood, putting them on either side of the leg and tying them together, making a splint.

Once again, Draconian slowly got up, using his sheathed katana as a walking stick. He walked out of the storage room, immediately heading towards his cabin. He didn't light any of the candles, the light he had was good enough, and he didn't want to warm the place up.

"Okay, I think it's safe to say that I'll be out of action for a while." He gave a groan as he sank into the chair behind the desk.

He pointed his finger towards the picture of Arlong he had posted on the board, shooting out two lines of fire to burn an X through the picture. The map with Arlong Park on it was opened up in front of him, and Draconian immediately located his position.

With a roaming finger, Draconian looked for any town he might be able to dock at, he was probably going to be out of business for a while, and he doubted that he had enough supplies.

His finger didn't even to roam on its own accord as it limply went across the page. Draconian stopped it, though, as it landed on one of the many dots on the shore.

"Rogue Town, eh?" Draconian took a closer look. "Not extremely far away, it seems like a good place to hang back while this leg heals. I've always wanted to go there anyways, see the sights."

And with that settled, Draconian started to limp back up to the deck, book under his arm, and set a course for Rouge Town.

* * *

Sorry if I got the name of the town wrong. Hopefully you guys liked this chapter; I personally think it was one of my best fights. Now, how is it that you guys thought I'd end it? Do I seem like that kind of person, in my last A/N I was talking about the end of the _chapter_, not _story_. Don't worry, this is going to go on for a long time, and the only time it's going to end is when the actual series ends. Okay, just in case you guys might be thinking a certain thing for the next chapter, I am not going to have Draconian fight Chaser, or Smoker, whichever name you prefer, I personally like Smoker. I haven't seen his fighting part yet in the series. Oh, I'm just curious, is the weapon that Smoker carries a club or a sword, because I saw someone draw a picture of him and it looked like a club. If you know can you please answer? Thanks. Now, time to get to reviews.

**Hutchy: **Well, I'm glad you like my character interactions. Did you know that there's this one author that is actually giving Mihawk a really bad name in her stories? I mean if you pay attention you can see that he's not that bad of a guy, right? He just doesn't respect certain type of people. I don't know why I'm saying this. Don't worry, the series will continue, and hopefully if I'm able to write the sequel it will be after the series with Draconian's son as the main character.

**Iwin Ulose: **I didn't _make _Shanks one of the Shichibukai, he _is _one of them, I read it somewhere on the net. Sorry about the Marines problem, I guess I didn't think it completely through. But there's always a way to fix things (sometimes), I could probably make it bounty hunters or rogue Marine officers, kind of like Smoker. Those people would probably chase him, and they'd be wild enough so that Mihawk would be nervous if they found out who he was close to. Really, the best you say? Thanks, I try my best, and I don't like to sound self centered but I feel I write some of the best fight scenes on fanfiction, I haven't really seen any better yet.

Well, that's it, I won't get the next chapter out as fast, I think I'll go back to working with my friend Anters on our story for a while. So I'll TTY all later.


	7. New Beginnings

New Beginnings

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

With a sharp tug, Draconian tightened the new dressing of bandages on his broken leg, at the same time locking the self made splint into place. His other bandages had started to get dirty, so he had to put on clean ones so as not to risk some kind of infection. It had been a few days since he had headed out of Arlong Park and headed towards Rogue Town, the birthplace of Gold Roger. At the moment, his ship was only minutes away from the harbor of the grand city, and he needed to do some preparation in his storeroom.

Draconian pushed himself off the ground, giving a grunt as he put weight on his broken leg. That was pretty much the main reason that he actually had to do preparation, with his broken leg he couldn't risk any chance of getting into a fight until it healed up. Before he had even come into view Draconian had taken down his Jolly Roger flag, just in case it provoked some people

into thinking the wrong thing of his little visit. He had even taken the extra precaution of covering up his dragon head with some canvas, in case some people remembered it.

Gripping his sheathed katana and using it as a walking stick, Draconian walked over to one of the wooden shelves. He pulled down what at first looked like a pile of fabric, but when he put it on became a big cloak with a hood, completely covering his body and face. Once more he set out towards another shelf in his limping steps. On top of this one was a collection of small items, little trinkets that Draconian had picked up here and there, small treasures from his childhood or just interesting things he found while at sea.

From it, he plucked out a pair of sunglasses, slipping them on to hide his eyes, of all the things that would give him away, that was the most obvious. With another slow hobble, Draconian headed over to the back of the room, near one of the corners of the dark place. As soon as he had gotten there, Draconian lifted up his katana and rested it on his shoulder, and reaching into the shadows picked out the final thing he was looking for.

It was a black cane, about three feet long, the length of it was made out of a black metal, with the bottom having a rubber attachment so as not to damage it. At the top was attached a dragon made out of regular metal, its claws resting on top of a pillar as it looked down upon a serpent which had twisted around the same exact pillar. The tail of the creature went right out, creating a place for the person wielding it to hold onto and get a firm grip.

Resting the bottom of it on the ground, Draconian gave a few practice walks, trying to get a feel for his new walking stick. He had it down with the second try, it worked a lot better than the katana had, seeing as the sheath had that curve, so it wasn't exactly great for walking. His steps were still slow, but he didn't wobble as much; so with his newfound tool, Draconian walked out of the storeroom and went into his cabin. With a flick of his wrist, he flung the katana onto his bed, making it land right next to his scimitar.

The swords were definitely one of the things that would stick out the most, not only would they be hard to find, but if people knew about him they'd probably remember what his swords looked like, and that wasn't good. He wasn't going out unprepared, however; the cane that he was using to walk had a sword of a little over two feet in length hidden in it, so in case he got into a little trouble all he had to do was give a little twist and whip it out.

Finally Draconian headed back up to the deck, the cane making a clunking noise each time it hit the wood. As he came into the fresh air, the first thing that Draconian noticed was Rogue Town itself, which at the moment was only minutes away. The buildings had a good size to them and showed nice and sharp in the sun, the many windows reflecting the sunlight in an almost beautiful way.

Draconian walked up to the dragon head, now covered in canvas, and stared out at the city before him, grand and beautiful. The birthplace of Gold Roger called out to him, the energy and excitement of the city seemed to take him in and soon he found his breaths quickening. Originally he just planned for a place to be where he could heal and stock up on supplies, but already he knew that this would be one trip he wouldn't forget.

So, after a few minutes of moving, Draconian docked his ship, not once receiving an exclaimed remark from some person or other, and with a shaky breath set up the ramp and walked down, into the streets of Rogue Town.

* * *

The first couple of days in Rouge Town were spent gathering up supplies for the ship, it had been getting low on food and Draconian needed to get some more bandages to replace the ones he used up. There were also some other items he needed that took a good while to locate, some of them so hard to find it took hours just to get one thing, such as medicines. It was especially slow going since every time he got something he would have to walk all the way back to the ship and put it in the storeroom.

The only time that he would stop when looking for supplies was when he needed a rest for his leg or when he was hungry. At night he would return to his ship and go sleep in his cabin, feeling it the safest lace he could possibly be after the sun had set.

After he had gotten all the things he needed to stock up on, the only thing that Draconian could really do was wait until his leg healed. So each day he would hobble out of his ship and go explore the streets of Rogue Town, looking at all the things the place had to offer. The shops were full of anything you could think of, many days were spent looking through them at interesting stuff. Bars and other eateries were crammed full with customers, so Draconian would usually spend about an hour or two for each of his meals outside and relaxing in the warm glow of the sun. His favorite spot to eat in the city was near a big fountain, where he would sit on the edge and eat some juicy fruit or whatnot.

One time he just spent the whole day looking at the "landmarks" of the city, like beautiful fountains or giant building. The best part, though, was when he went to the spot where Gold Roger was hanged. It didn't really look like much, a small steel tower with crisscrossing metal beams to support it, but that didn't really matter, it was what happened there that meant something. Every single day afterward he would come back to the spot and stare at the structure for about fifteen minutes, the energy he felt as he entered the city suddenly returning and making his breath quicken.

There was much entertainment that the city offered, such as a cooking contest that Draconian witnessed, that was definitely an interesting thing to watch. Feats of strength, speed, and of course drinking were also very common sights, and it took every ounce of Draconian's will to remind himself of his injury and not reveal himself.

But there was one place that, to Draconian, topped them all, even the place Gold Roger was hung, a place that almost made him feint the first time he saw it. That place was the sword and weapons shop, where blade upon blade hung from the wall, each one shining with a beautiful shine as light struck the metal surface. Each one was different and had its own characteristic, and Draconian spent hours each day studying the craftsmanship of every one. One day, the first day he found it actually, Draconian had spent from morning to nightfall looking at the swords, not even stopping for food; it had taken the owner of the store to give him a rough shake to remind him that it was night.

Through all that, Draconian's leg had been constantly healing, the skin repairing itself and the bone going back into alignment. And so, one week after setting foot on the city, Draconian's leg had completely healed, leaving behind only a soreness each time he stepped down.

Back in the storeroom, which was now completely full of food and supplies, Draconian put away his cane, cloak, and sunglasses. With his leg healed, he no longer needed to fear being attacked, since now he could attack back. His katana and scimitar were also back in their rightful places on Draconian's body, ready to be whipped out at a moment's notice.

He walked out of the storeroom, a grin on his face as he appeared on the deck of his ship. Before he went to his ramp, Draconian stepped up to the dragon head and pulled off the canvas, throwing it back onto the deck to be put away at a later time. And with steps almost as light as the air, Draconian stepped onto the plank and walked down to the shore.

The air felt good on his skin, the warmth of the sun giving a nice feeling instead of the one of stifling heat he had felt underneath the heavy cloak. Finally he was back to the original weight he walked around with, the vest light against his chest with the katana by his waist and the scimitar a reassuring weight on his back. Of course, there was a down side to going back to his original looks, if you could call it a downside.

A lot of people that passed him just treated him like they treated him yesterday, but those were the people who didn't look at him. For those people who did see him, however, the reaction was immediate. Some of them just stared at him as they passed; I mean he didn't exactly look like the usual person on the street, but others eyes would widen in fear or amazement. There were also people who went beyond that, many of them moving to another side of the road, and even a few people had actually turned right around and ran.

Draconian was guessing that there were two reasons for this kind of behavior. Either word of him had gotten around to a good amount of people, I mean he'd been at this stuff for a whole year, it's about time, or they saw his eyes, and just doing that can make a person pee his pants in fear if he knew anything about Draconian's father. He pretty much just ignored this, but he did take a mental note of it just in case some navy men happened to know something about him.

His first stop this day was at one of the produce markets, where he picked up a couple good looking apples. As he handed the woman his money, her gaze traveled up his face, taking in his eyes. Immediately she shrank away from his hand, her body shaking as she tried to get as far away from him as possible.

He knew it wouldn't be right, wouldn't be polite, but Draconian just couldn't help it as he witnessed this odd sight, and he belted out a small laugh at what just seemed funny to him. With a little flick of his wrist, he tossed the coins at the woman's feet and walked away, the people around him once again shrinking away from his body.

His next stop was the big pavilion in which the big water fountain was, standing tall and beautiful in the middle of the paved area. With a quick stride, he walked up to the edge of the fountain and sat down, a fine mist of water surrounding his body. He set down one of the apples, bringing the other one up to his mouth and taking a large bite out of it. Back at the ship he hadn't eaten any breakfast, so this was going to be his only meal till lunch time.

The apples could have easily been eaten in only a few minutes, but Draconian decided to drag it out, making it last fifteen minutes so that he could admire the nice day. As he finished off the last bite, Draconian stood back up, giving a small stretch with a groan to accompany it. The apple cores in his had ignited in fire, lasting only a few seconds only to disappear in a small puff of smoke, leaving only a pile of ashes, or whatever you get by burning apples.

His good time was short lived, however, as a shout erupted from one of the streets leading to the small pavilion. "Hey, you, stop right where you are!"

Draconian lazily turned his head over to the noise, the rest of his body in a casual stance as he looked upon a group of navy men walking towards him. He gave a small sigh of annoyance. "Damn, as soon as I show my face. Well, eyes to be precise."

The leader of the group raised his gun and pointed it at Draconian's face. "You are under arrest, do not attempt to resist or you shall be shot."

In response Draconian cocked an eyebrow and rested his left hand casually on the hilt of his katana. "And what is it exactly that I've done?"

Without even putting down the gun, the navy man shouted across the clearing. "You are wanted by navy as too much of a threat to other people."

Draconian's eyes scrunched up as he seemed to consider this, after a while of this shaking his head. "Nope, sorry but I don't really think I am."

With a signal from the leader, the rest of the men raised their guns. "Come with us please, or I promise you that we'll shoot."

A chuckle emanated from his lips. "Really? Well let's see if you can hit me." And with that, Draconian shot off to the side, fire erupting from his feet to give him extra speed. Gun shots erupted behind him, the bullets missing his skin but placing holes in the pavement.

Once he was at the edge of the pavilion, Draconian jumped off the ground, the fire at his feet lifting him up so that he landed on the roof of a building. From there he ran across the roof, jumping once he got to a gap and landing on the next building. Bullets smashed into the sides of the buildings, usually behind him, creating small explosions of dust where they hit.

Draconian just jumped from building to building, the whole time getting further and further away from the navy men, who were following his path but just couldn't keep up to his speed. The bullets hit even farther away from him, making Draconian belt out a laugh at the men's feeble attempts.

After a few more minutes, the navy men were almost out of sight, appearing to him as only dots, and he was sure that to them he was completely nothing. As he landed on the next building top, Draconian walked towards the middle of the roof and laid down, pretty much keeping him completely out of sight of the navy men.

For a while he just lay there, waiting, until finally he heard voices near the building, a loud shouting as people rushed through, obviously the navy men thinking he had kept on going. So all he did was wait until that noise had faded away, which only took a minute, and Draconian stood back up and headed back the way he had come, going the exact opposite direction of the navy men.

When he had gotten about halfway back to the pavilion, Draconian made a turn, going along another row of buildings. His pace had slowed down to a walk now that he no longer needed to actually run. As he walked along, his head looked down at the street below, the eyes counting the number of doors on the building sides.

After a while of this, Draconian came to a stop, looking down both sides of the street, making sure that no one was around. With the certainty that no one would come in the next few seconds, Draconian jumped off the roof to fall to the ground.

He hit the ground with a groan, his left leg going down to its knee in pain. Usually, he would have been able to jump down easily with no trouble, but with a leg that just recovered from being broken it was definitely no picnic. His hands clutched onto the leg, moving up and down to try and help with the small pain. "Note to self, no more jumping down from high places until leg heals."

Once the pain had died away, Draconian stood back up, giving a little stretch of the leg to try and help, and turned around. Right in front of him was the door to the weapon shop that he had gone to so often each day. With a measured step, Draconian pushed open the door and stepped into the shop.

There was rack upon rack of weapons, glass displays on tables, buckets with swords in them like umbrellas, and it was the most beautiful thing Draconian had ever seen. The only person in the place was the owner, which at the moment was standing behind one of the counters, cleaning one of the many swords.

A few days earlier, an idea struck Draconian that he just couldn't put away, an idea that had grown each day. He had decided that it was time for him to buy a dagger, it would be good for sneaky or quick attacks, and he even had an idea on how to apply his powers in a really nice way with a good dagger. So, for the last few days, his concentration had been studying all the specific daggers there were on display, trying to find one that seemed special and was in his current price range. It was actually yesterday that he had made his choice, and he just could not wait to buy it.

Draconian walked up to the counter, tapping on the glass to get the owner's attention, receiving an interested glance to show the guy was listening. With a smile, Draconian traced his finger along the glass, stopping once he had found the dagger he was looking for and pointing at it. The man put the sword away and took out a ring of keys, and still not saying a word opened up the glass case and took out the dagger. Before he gave the dagger to Draconian, the man made a gesture with his free hand, indicating that he wanted the money up front.

With a small chuckle, Draconian dug in his pocket and fished out some coins, tossing them on the glass counter so that they landed in front of the man. He gave them a scrutinizing gaze, picking up one and examining it closely. After he was satisfied they were real, the man handed Draconian the dagger, who took a hold of it with a look someone might give their child.

With the sheath on, the whole thing was about a foot and a quarter long, the ends curving a little sharply in a direction that stated it was a right handed knife, while the rest of it just had more of a gentle curve, like a katana. It was shaped like a green dragon, the spine, underside, and two small limbs near its head a kind of reddish brown color. There were no actual wings on it, the head of the beast was a bright red and it had five kind of bonelike ridges on it, one going up the middle and two on either side of it. The body twisted a little as it went down the length of the sheath, only going halfway to the right and then twisting back to the left, going completely around at the end. At the end, the tail bent backwards, going under the beast and twisting around the bottom to come back up on top of it. A snake was wrapped around its length, it looped around in front of the dragon's head, where the dragon bit into its length, and twisted back around to rest its head on top of the dragon's scales.

When opened up, it revealed a blade that was eight inches long and an inch thick. It was single edged, and the end curved gently off into a point, much like a katana would, technically making this a tanto. It was thinner and smaller than any other tantos that Draconian had seen, but that's kind of what made it special for him, other than the sheath of course. The blade shined nicely and the edge was good and sharp, he probably could have cut an orange with it just by dropping the fruit right onto the blade.

Draconian placed the tanto back into the sheath and moved it to his waist, placing it in a belt loop right below his katana. Because the snake's body looped out in front of the head, the end was wide enough so that it didn't slip out and rode easily alongside him. So, giving the owner a nod of his head to end the silent meeting, Draconian turned around and walked out the shop door.

His joyfulness at getting the new weapon didn't last, however, as he stepped out into the street, only to hear an angry shout.

"Hey, you, stop right there!"

Draconian gave an exasperated sigh and whispered a curse under his breath. He then turned around and jumped, giving a boost of fire along with the leap to lift him up to the top of the roof. This time he just ran flat out, going from roof to roof without even looking behind, not even knowing where the hell the navy men were. He didn't know where he ran, just knowing when to jump and when to run, going ahead in a reckless pace, even jumping over whole streets.

He didn't have any idea how long he had run, the only reason he had stopped was because he had realized the sound of bullets had stopped for a while. The memory of his run just seemed like a blur to him, he didn't even know if he had made a single turn during the whole thing or if he had made a hundred. His leg felt tired from all the running, especially his left, his heart was beating faster than normal, and he had to take deep breaths.

Draconian took a look around at the street below, trying to see if he could find something familiar. It was a narrow street, at the moment there wasn't really anyone in it, and the only sign of any kind of habitation was a sign hanging over a door. This was definitely someplace where Draconian hadn't been before, he would have most likely remembered it. He might as well check it out from street level, though, just in case there was anything he could recognize to his location.

With a small leap, Draconian jumped from the top of the roof he was on down to the street below. Fire erupted from the bottom of his feet, blasting towards the ground to slow his fall, making it so that his landing felt like stepping down from a stair. Nothing really looked familiar from the street level, either, the only thing in it being the door and the sign.

The sign swung a little back and forth from a gust of wind, creating a small creaking noise and drawing Draconian's attention. Written upon it was some slightly faded letters, simply labeling the place as _The Gold Roger_.

"Hmm, the Gold Roger, eh?" Sounded like a bar name to him, and since he knew bars pretty well he was probably right. Might as well go in, he thought, he was feeling thirsty from the run, and it did have the name of the pirate that everyone pretty much looked up to, it might be interesting.

So, with measured steps, Draconian pushed through the door, making a bell give a tinkle to signal the door opening, and walked down a small staircase to the bar. There wasn't that much light in it, but everything could be seen pretty clearly, giving a kind of cozy feeling. The actual bar was to the right of the doorway, with many round tables on the other half of the room. It wasn't really crowded, but there were a good number of people sitting in the tables, creating a soft buzzing of chatter, with a few people sitting at the bar. From what Draconian could tell, they all looked like pirates or just rough people, the only exception being the barkeep, who was a small fellow, had to stand on a stool behind the bar so that he could serve people their drinks, wrinkles covered his skin, and he was wearing a pair of glasses, very small circles and tinted a light purple.

It felt just like home.

As soon as he had entered into the room, the quite buzzing of chatter had stopped as everyone glanced towards the newcomer. This probably happened with everyone who came in; of course the reaction probably didn't happen with most people. Many of their eyes widened in a kind of shock, and almost half of them snapped their heads back to what they were originally doing, obviously not trying to catch his attention. The rest showed different signs, from shaking in fear to looking at him with challenge in their eyes. The barkeep seemed to look at him with a kind of welcoming, his eyes even showing a respect in them as they roved his body.

Almost as soon as it had started, the staring ended as everyone else looked back to continue their original discussions or card games. With a feeling of acceptance washing over him, Draconian walked over to the nearest barstool and sat down. Immediately the barkeep walked over to him, dragging the stool with him and placing it in front of Draconian's seat and standing on top of it. "So, what'll it be?"

Draconian placed his elbows on the bar to address the barkeep. "I'll just take a glass of water."

The man gave a nod and got off the stool, turning around to grab a glass and a bottle of water. He filled up the glass and placed a few ice cubes inside it, turning back around to get back up on the stool and place the drink in front of Draconian. Once he had done that, the barkeep reached below the bar and grabbed a dirty glass and started to clean it with a rag. Without even looking at him, he once more addressed Draconian. "So, what are you doing here in Rogue Town?"

Draconian took a little sniff of the liquid, making sure it was water, and satisfied took a small sip. "Just here to see the sights, I needed some relaxation time anyways, leg got a little beaten up in my last fight."

The barkeep gave a small chuckle. "Ah, didn't know Arlong had done that good a job against you."

His eyebrow cocked in a curious gesture as Draconian set down the drink. "Where'd you hear about Arlong?"

"Oh, here and there." His eyes looked back up at Draconian, giving a knowing glance, as his hands continued to clean the glass. "Word spreads pretty fast when someone has done the stuff you have, I'm guessing someone from the village nearby saw some things and told the navy when they came for Arlong. I've also heard how you beat Krieg off that one village; you're building quite a reputation for yourself."

Draconian crossed his arms and leaned back in his stool. "Well I should be, I've been doing this for a year, it's about time that word's spread about me."

Setting the glass, now clean, aside, the barkeep gave a good laugh and started to reach under the counter for something else. "Oh, word's spread quite well, probably better than you think, take a good look."

He pulled out a brown piece of paper and handed it over to Draconian, who grabbed it with a curious look. On the top was written WANTED, while in the middle was a picture of him he had taken some weeks after he had first left home. On it, he was leaning against the back of a rock; his left leg was laid flat on the ground while his right was bent up, his right arm resting on top of the knee. His left arm was resting on top of his scimitar's hilt, the sword itself sticking into the ground below. His left eye was the only one visible and was looking out to what was the sunset when the picture had been taken. Below was written DRACONIAN "DRAGON" MIHAWK, and the price below that was definitely a good amount.

Draconian gave a whistle. "Thirty-five million beli, eh? Now that's a good number."

"You got that right, kiddo, even higher than that straw hat kid everyone's been talking about."

His attention was soon drawn away from the wanted ad as Draconian heard this. He gave a curious glance toward the barkeep and turned an ear in his direction. "Straw hat kid? Who's he, I keep hearing about him but I don't really know anything, but from what I hear he sounds good."

For once, the barkeep's eyes widened. "You don't know about him? Boy, you don't get out that much, he's known pretty well, everyone's seen his wanted ad. Thirty million beli, jus five million below your own, he's the one who actually beat Arlong. I met him a while ago, he's actually the one who inspired me to start the bar over again, it had gone down in business."

"Really? Tell me about him."

"Okay, but I can't tell you everything, I've only heard so much. From what I've heard, his first major fight was with Buggy the Clown..."

* * *

Draconian was leaning over the bar like when he was a kid and listening to some of the pirate's tales, his interest peaked completely as the barkeep finished the story. "Really?"

The barkeep gave a small nod. "Yep, that's what he told me."

With a sigh, Draconian settled back down in his seat and grabbed his glass of water. He rested his other hand on his chin as he contemplated all the barkeep had just told him. "So, he headed towards the Grand Line right after leaving Rouge Town, eh?"

"That's what I just said."

A small grin grew on Draconian's lips. "Kind of interesting, from what you've told me it seems me and have should be about equal in skills, we have beaten the same pirates after all."

The barkeep gave a chuckle as he stared upon the grinning teen. "Let me guess, you're thinking about fighting this kid, aren't you?"

"It seems like it's going to be a nice fight, I need a good challenge and this seems like it should be it, I especially can't wait to face hat swordsman of his."

"Roanoa Zoro? Now that I'd pay to see."

Draconian belted out a laugh. "Thanks for the compliment. Now, I think there's only one thing for me to do about this information you've told me."

With an interesting eye, the barkeep leaned forward. "And that is...?"

Mirroring the barkeep, Draconian leaned back forward so that the two were just centimeters away. "I think it's time that I go to the Grand Line."

The barkeep belted out a good laugh and slapped Draconian on the shoulder. "I was wondering when you were going to say that! This calls for a toast!" And, getting off his stool, the barkeep grabbed two glasses and a bottle of rum and began pouring. After putting the bottle away, he placed both glasses on the counter and raised one of them up, motioning for Draconian to pick up the other. "To the Grand Line!"

With a hesitant hand, Draconian picked up the glass, but raised it as high as he could along with the barkeep. "To Gold Roger!"

The barkeep gave a laugh and continued on. "To adventures!"

"To good fights!"

"To pirates!"

"To... new beginnings!"

"To friends!" They both gave a laugh and clinked the glasses together, after which the barkeep downed the whole glass.

Draconian raised the glass before his lips, but right before taking a sip gave a whisper unheard by the barkeep. "To my father." He then took a sip of the liquid, letting it settle on his tongue before swallowing it to burn a path down his throat and put a small fuzzy feeling in his head for a few seconds.

The sound of the bell ringing alerted everyone to the door opening and had them all once more looking in the direction of the newcomers, even Draconian.

Two people came in, a man and a woman. The man was black, not deep black skin, more just a dark brown, and wore a long leather jacket, the kind that came down to your ankles, and had a red shirt underneath it. He also wore black pants and boots. His dreadlocks were black and only came down to his neck, and his face was just still, emotionless, the feeling of it heightened by the sunglasses he wore.

The woman definitely didn't seem like she belonged in a place like this. She had a face that seemed like it was always smiling, except that for now her lips were pulled down in a thin line. On her was a one piece yellow dress that came down to her knees with slices of yellow fruit designed over the whole thing. In her hands she was holding an umbrella, and on top of her head was the oddest hat Draconian had ever seen. It looked like an upside down bowl, the kind that a chef might use, deep with straight sides, except that this was yellow. Sticking underneath it was her yellow hair, which from what Draconian could see was most likely straight.

After everyone had turned away back to what they were originally doing, the two headed to the bar, finding seats in the middle of it, a good distance away from Draconian. The barkeep walked over to them and took their order, and after asking where they were from was greeted with a curt "None of your business" from the man. His voice was smooth, yet at the same time dangerous.

Once he had served them their drinks, the barkeep came back over to Draconian, who had already started to ignore the newcomers. "Odd couple."

"Eh, the world's filled with em; I figure the only one's to take notice are the one's that can offer a nice fight. So, you have any good stories to tell?"

The barkeep offered a small chuckle. "Do I? Boy, I knew Gold Roger personally, I've got some stories that would turn the ear of a deaf man."

Draconian cocked an eyebrow. "Really? Let's hear them, then."

As the conversation between Draconian and the barkeep turned to Gold Roger, the conversation between the two newcomers had just started.

"Why are we here?" he woman complained to the man sitting next to her.

"This is the most reclusive place in the city; I highly doubt anyone will take notice of us here."

"No, I mean why are we here in Rogue Town, there are too many people, someone might know about us." She leaned on the bar and started to swirl her drink in her hand.

"It's a good place to hide out, not even the boss would send people to take care of us here with all these people around."

The woman took a sip of her drink. "Oh, come on Five, just because we're not in favor with Mr. Zero doesn't mean he's going to have someone take care of us."

"Shh!" Five leaned in closer to her. "For someone who doesn't like these crowds, you're pretty willing to shout out are names, do you really want to take the risk that someone will know about Baroque Works, Ms. Valentine?"

Valentine glowered at Five. "Fine, but I still stand by my earlier statement on the boss."

"Then you obviously don't know him as well as I do, he's not exactly the type of person to set grudges aside, when he gets angry at someone for failing a mission, they're going to know it, and I don't know about you but I don't want to take the risk of knowing it."

"Why can't we just get back in his favor, that shouldn't be too hard, I bet we can easily steal some serious cash now that that Smoker person isn't in this town anymore." She gave a soft laugh that normally would have been high pitched and took another sip of her drink.

"Didn't I just say this is a place to lay low, now what don't you understand about that."

"Just chill, I bet anything we do we can do it quick enough so that no one can see it, these navy men aren't exactly the hardest of challenges to get by anyways, it was really that Smoker fellow that ran the town. Besides, all we need is just a good heist, something with a good pay that we can hand to the boss, and then all our mistakes are forgotten."

"Well I don't like it, there's too much of a chance something might happen, I'd rather just do the regular thing and take out a pirate and collect the bounty, that usually gets a good amount after a while."

Another laugh split from Valentine's lips. "Yeah, like that's going to happen, I mean where are we going to find a pirate with a bounty that..." her voice faded as soon as she looked down the bar to where the barkeep was talking to Draconian. "Five."

"I told you to shut up, now why can't you..."

"Look." Valentine raised her hand and pointed across the bar.

With an exasperated sigh, Five turned his head to where she was pointing. His eyes went wide behind his sunglasses as he looked upon the teen sitting just a few seats away from the two. It was unmistakable, that spiky hair, the vest and pants with the scale design, the two swords, and especially those hawk eyes of his. Five started to shake, his voice coming in a whisper. "Draconian Mihawk, here..." his lips started to slowly curl up in a smile as he considered the possibilities, "if we take him down we should get right back in the boss' favor, and if that doesn't do it the money will."

"Exactly what I was thinking, we hit the jackpot." Valentine leaned on the table dreamily as her mind raced with ideas. "Just imagine it, not only will we get back in the boss' favor, but he might even promote us for taking down this kid, we might even be allowed to keep the money."

"I can just hear it now, Mr. Three, maybe even Two."

"So, how bout we go and take our promotion right now?"

Five gave a nod of his head. "Let's. But don't engage him openly; let's just take him out when his back is turned."

"I like that idea."

The two got off of their stools and placed a few coins on the bar. With a casual walk, they headed over in the direction of the door, their path going to take them past Draconian.

As soon as they had even entered the bar, Draconian had paid absolutely no attention to the odd looking pair, and he still paid no attention to them now, especially since he was listening to one of the many tales of Gold Roger. The only thing he did notice was that they had gotten up, but he paid no attention to that either.

He never expected anything from the two, so it caught him completely unawares when the shout behind him came.

"Bomb Boogey!"

Because of his unawareness and how fast the attack came, there was nothing that Draconian could do to dodge it, and just as soon as he had even registered the voice he felt the impact on his back.

An explosion erupted where Draconian was sitting, sending him flying forward to crash into the shelves behind the bar. Besides sending Draconian flying, the explosion had destroyed a few stools and a section of the bar's length.

Mr. Five was standing right behind where Draconian was originally sitting, holding up his right arm with his hand in the position that suggested he had just flicked something. Standing next to him was Valentine, who had her umbrella resting on her shoulder and was giving a high pitched laugh. "Good hit, Mr. Five."

"Why, thank you Ms. Valentine." He lowered his arm and stood straight back up. "I think it's time we drag him to the navy and collect our reward."

The smoke from the explosion had finally cleared, revealing the destruction of the attack. Not only was the bar destroyed, but the shelves where Draconian had hit the wall were completely torn off. The bottles of drinks were all broken and on the ground, surrounding Draconian, who was sprawled on the ground.

"Hmm," Valentine cocked her head to the side, "you'd think he'd be better than this."

A grunt came from the ground, and Draconian's arms pushed himself back up, he then got his feet underneath him and stood back up. His arms came up and started to push the pieces of glass off his body, which was also covered in alcohol. "Don't think I'm out yet."

Both Valentine and Five took a step back in shock at Draconian, who seemed completely unaffected by the attack.

"Now," Draconian remarked after completely wiping off the glass, "I'm going to take a wild guess and say either you have some explosives on you or you've eaten Devil Fruit."

"The Bomb Bomb Fruit, yes," remarked Five.

"Good," Draconian straightened back up and crossed his arms, "it's been a complete year since I've fought someone else with Devil Fruit powers, I'd like to get some practice in."

Valentine started to wave her hands in front of her. "Hey, um, there's no reason to start a fight here."

"Oh?" Draconian cocked his head. "I think there is, I don't really take too kindly to people attacking me when my back is turned, even if they are from Baroque Works."

The sunglasses on Five's face almost slipped off, revealing his shocked eyes. "How did you...?"

Draconian threw his head back as laughter ripped through his throat, rocking his body in shakes. Just as soon as it had started, however, the laughter stopped as Draconian shot his head back down to give the two a hard look. "Let me tell you something, I grew up in a city where there was always at least one pirate docked there every single day of the year, I actually spent most of my time in a bar full of them, you don't think I hear things?"

Five had stopped shaking in shock and pushed his sunglasses back up. "Well then, it seems we're found out Ms. Valentine."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and you kept complaining it would be me who'd blow our cover."

"Now," Draconian started to crack his knuckles, "we gonna get this started or are you going to run like a couple of little pansies. Just to warn you, though, if you run away I'll just hunt you down and kick your ass."

Five and Valentine looked at each other, obviously contemplating about their options.

"Well," Valentine started off, "it is a big pay job."

"And two against one." Five looked back at Draconian. "I think we're in."

"Good, I was hoping I wouldn't have to chase you, it's just really annoying." His hands traveled to his swords.

"Wait!" The barkeep hurried from behind the bar and stood between the fighters. "You aren't doing anything in my bar; I won't allow any more damage!"

Five looked down at the barkeep with a snarl. "Get out of the way old man, or do you want me to make you?"

Draconian gave a small nod down at him. "Don't worry, nothing will happen to your bar. Come on!" With that, Draconian shot towards the door, in which the other two responded by running after him.

As soon as he was out of the bar, Draconian spun around, his right leg raised up and back, fire covering the foot.

"Dragon Sledgehammer!"

The foot swung in just as Five had appeared in the doorway, catching him unawares and smashing into the side of his head. The kick carried his head over to smash into the side of the doorway, splintering the wood from the force. Five slumped down to the ground as soon as Draconian had taken his foot off of his face.

Following right behind Five was Valentine, who lunged over Five's body towards Draconian. In response, Draconian just ducked, sending Valentine hurtling over his body to fall on the ground behind him. He then turned around and grabbed her arm, giving a pull to get her back up on her feet. After turning around once more, Draconian pulled on her arm, trying to throw her over his shoulder into the wall.

Her body didn't budge as Draconian gave a strong tug, making him strain his body in a way that just didn't feel too good. It felt like he was trying to throw an elephant, she was so damn heavy.

Her high pitched laugh came from behind him. "I've eaten the Kilo Kilo Fruit, meaning I can change my weight at will, nothing you can do will be enough to lift me."

Draconian gave a growl of annoyance. "Fine, then I'll just chop you to pieces instead." He let go of her arm and grabbed onto his swords, spinning around as he did so.

"Dragon Wings!"

Both swords whipped out and slash horizontally at Valentine, fire erupting along their lengths, only to hit empty air. Draconian's eyes snapped to the sky, where Valentine was floating right above him, her umbrella wide open. "Oh that just can't be good."

Suddenly Valentine stopped floating and started to fall, her legs tucked up against her as her body as she came down. With an agility that he had built up over the course of his life, however, Draconian was easily able to jump out of the way before she hit. The ground buckled and broke where Valentine landed, her then extreme weight hitting with a force that would have dealt Draconian some good damage.

Draconian turned his back to Valentine and started to run, his flaming swords by his side. He turned his head around and shouted back to the Valentine, who was at the moment climbing out of her little whole. "This alley's a little too narrow for my tastes, how about we tango somewhere with a little more room."

Valentine gave another laugh. "Fine by me kid, but let's just hope you can find a place like that before I fall on you." And, opening up her umbrella, she once more lowered her weight and floated up into the air, flying after Draconian.

After about a minute of running, Draconian came to another one of the wide squares. In the middle of it was a small water fountain, and there wasn't that many people around. Draconian's eyes roved the skies, searching for Valentine, and started to walk around the perimeter of the place. His eyes continually shot back to the alley he had just come from, guessing that would be the most likely place she would come from.

In reality, Valentine had landed on one of the buildings before coming to this place, obviously guessing that Draconian would look for her in the air. She took to the farther sides of the roofs as she ran to Draconian's position, staying out of his sight at all times. As soon as she came to where he was walking, Valentine waited, always ducking back a little when it looked like Draconian might turn around. Finally, when his back was completely turned, Valentine jumped off the roof right above Draconian, already increasing her weight as she did so. "So long Draconian!"

Draconian's head snapped backwards in surprise as he looked up at Valentine, who was already falling down. He jumped back, doing a back flip as he did so and just missing Valentine as she slammed into the ground right where he was previously standing. Once his body made a complete turn in the air, Draconian placed his feet against the wall and raised both swords to his shoulders. "And goodbye."

Valentine looked backwards in shock as she realized he had just dodged her, only in time to see him push off the wall and start spinning his body.

"Dragon Tornado!"

A vortex of fire erupted from the spinning blades and, because of the angles of the blades, blasted towards Valentine. It engulfed her in a wave of heat, surrounding her and searing her skin, the pain of it completely holding her to the spot. Next came Draconian, his whole body spinning, moving the flames in the vortex that they were, his swords slashing in a continual circle at blurring speed. He went right into and past Valentine, his swords putting cut after cut all over her body.

Once he went past her, Draconian's body suddenly stopped spinning, leaving him in the air with his back to Valentine. As soon as he had stopped, the fire immediately dispersed, as if a gust of wind had just slashed right through it.

"Dragon Kick!"

Draconian's right foot, now covered in flames, snapped backwards, smashing right into Valentine's chest, sending her flying backwards. The force of the hit sent her body right through the wall behind her, and from a few other noises, Draconian guessed, a few other walls after that.

With a sigh, Draconian slipped both of his swords back into their sheaths, the fires once again extinguished. "Too bad, I was hoping there'd be more of a challenge."

"Don't worry, you'll get what you wished for. Bomb Boogey!"

Draconian jumped to the side, just missing as an explosion hit where he was standing. His face snapped to one of the roofs across the small square, where Mr. Five was standing, his arm held out as he flicked out another... booger?

Once more Draconian jumped to the side as the exploding booger hit where he was just standing. "Okay, now that's just disgusting."

Mr. Five raised up his arm and started to pick his nose. "Hasn't anyone ever told you not to pick on a guy who picks his nose?" He pulled his finger out and held it up, booger poised on the tip of his finger as he held it on his thumb. "Now why don't you stay still?"

"Oh yeah, like that's ever gonna happen." Again he jumped to the side as Five flicked out another one of his explosive... things. His hand reached down to his waist and traced over his katana, but instead of pulling the sword out traveled down to his little new addition. "I think it's time I test this thing."

This time, Mr. Five raised both of his arms up and dug in both nostrils, and after a few seconds pulled out two nice sized lumps. He squeezed both of the lumps, breaking each of them into four different projectiles. Finally, he laid each finger on his hands on top of the thumb, a booger held ready in each. "Let's see you dodge this, Boogey Barrage!"

Each finger flicked, sending all eight of the explosive boogers flying towards Draconian.

Draconian whipped out his tanto, immediately lighting it up in flames as soon as it touched the air. Instead of just sticking to the blade, however, the flame lengthened out, creating a long, thin path of flame erupt from the handle of the tanto. Its length was huge, longer than that of a ship and looking as if it could keep on going, but it was as thin as the blade on his dagger.

"Dragon Whip!"

With a few flicks of his wrist, Draconian sent the long, flaming whip back and forth. The flame snapped at each of the flying explosives, not knocking them aside or destroying them as it looked like, but instead curling around each and capturing each and every one of them. Once he had successfully gotten all of them, Draconian brought the handle of the dagger above his head, making the whip snap back over his shoulder. He then brought it back down, bringing the whip back of his shoulders and swinging across the clearing, right in the direction of Five.

The whip smashed right on top of Five, bringing all eight of the boogers with it and creating a huge explosion. Smoke pretty much covered the whole building that Five was standing on, but that just because he couldn't see everything didn't mean Draconian was going to wait until it cleared. With a pull of the handle, Draconian snapped the whip back, at the same time making it wrap around whatever was near.

Just as he had predicted, the whip pulled Five out of the smoke, his legs held tightly together by the flames. Instead of just letting him go, however, Draconian swung his body up and over, making him smash into the side of a building. He swung Five's body again, sending him crashing into the side of a wall, only to come snapping back to hit yet another building.

Draconian continued to do this, only stopping when he had actually sent Five's body right through a wall.

The fire along the blade extinguished itself, and Draconian let out a sigh and started to twirl the little blade between his fingers. "There, that should take care of him." And with a little finish, stopped the dagger's twirling and slipped it back into his belt.

Another explosive projectile shot itself out of the hole in the wall, catching Draconian by surprise as it exploded right in front of him.

Five's laugh issued from the wall as he stepped out of the whole, his clothes slightly torn from the previous explosion. "Don't count me down yet, kid, I'm a lot harder to get rid of then it seems." His laugh continued, growing in pitch until he had thrown his head back, his body starting to shake.

What he hadn't noticed, though, was the smoke caused by the explosion. It wasn't just clearing like the previous times, this time it seemed to be swirling about, gathering towards the middle, along with the fire from the explosion. It was when Draconian's undamaged head poked out of the swirling smoke that Five took notice of everything, his laughing stopped.

Draconian's face was furrowed in concentration and anger, as he was really pissed off by the surprise attack. In his right hand was his scimitar, which was spinning out in front of him, not only erupted in flames but also gathering the smoke and fire around it to the center, creating a giant wheel of smoke and fire in front of Draconian.

With teeth clenched from annoyance, Draconian addressed the shocked Five. "You're really starting to get annoying, you know that? It's time that I end this, Attack Fusion..." Draconian shot forward, bringing the spinning scimitar to his side and back, wheel of smoke and fire along with it.

"Dragon Whirlwind Sweeper!"

Five never stood a chance, he was too close, there was no possible way he could have dodged Draconian, not with his skills. Even so, shock had sapped his reactions, he couldn't move, could only stand there as Draconian made his move.

Draconian swung the swirling blade, smashing the explosion fire right into Five, creating a pillar of smoke and flames where he hit. Not only, but the spinning sword slashed cut after cut into Five's body, covering him in thin small red lines. The whole attack, in itself, only lasted a second, but the effects were huge.

As soon as he was past Five, Draconian stopped the scimitar's spinning, extinguishing the flames along with it, and placed it back into the sheath. Behind him, Five slumped down to his knees, his body bent over from the pain, the leftover smoke from the attack swirling around his body.

Draconian turned around and walked out of the hole, bending down once he was next to Five to take off the bag of coins hanging from his belt. He then straightened back up and continued on to the hole in the wall where he had sent Valentine. It took him a while o walk through the debris of the wrecked walls, but he easily found the unconscious Valentine, and bending down relieved her of her own money too.

As he walked out of the hole, Draconian began counting the amount of money that the two had. It was a good amount, definitely something that would last for a good while, could even buy himself a few luxuries if he wanted to. Only a few times before was he able to get his hands on this kind of money, and that was from whole pirate crews, or at least their loot.

He walked by Five once more, giving him a look that had pathetic written all over it.

Five caught this look, and it made his blood boil; his hands clenched in fists and his teeth ground together in rage. His left hand reached across and raised up the torn remains of his right sleeve, leaving only his bare arm, which had a few good cuts over it. With a shout of rage, he pushed back up on his feet and ran towards Draconian, his bared arm up and ready to hit.

Draconian spun around and ducked, dodging as the arm sailed right over his head, kind of like a clothesline would. His right fist erupted in flames as he tucked it in to his side.

"Dragon Fist!"

The fist slammed right into Five's gut, the force of it causing a gust of wind to blow the dust around their feet away. A strangled noise came out of Five's throat, and his body finally slumped down to the ground, unconscious.

The fire gone from his fist, Draconian stood back up and started to dust off his hands. Finally, he turned back around and started to walk towards the alleyway he had come from, only to stop once more as a shout echoed from the other side of the square.

"You, stop right there!"

"God dammit!" Draconian started to run, jumping up even before he got to the wall and sending a huge blast of fire out of his feet to land right on the roof. Shouts rang out behind him, and bullets landed just around his feet, so he ran right along the side of the roof. Normally he would have kept running, but there was something he had to do.

Once in range of the Gold Roger, Draconian jumped right off the roof, slowing his fall with a blast of fire and going into a roll. As soon as he was out of the roll, Draconian jumped back up and shot right through the door of the bar. He didn't go down into the pit, but instead located the barkeep, who was cleaning up the mess behind the bar. With a quick hand, Draconian reached into his pocket and picked out one of the bags he had taken, and with a flick of his wrist tossed it over to the barkeep.

The barkeep stopped in his work as the bag landed right in front of him, and with a curious eye started to inspect it. He stopped, however, when Draconian shouted from the doorway. "That should pay for the damage to the bar! Sorry but I got to go now!"

Guessing where the bag had come from, the barkeep stopped Draconian before he could take completely off. "I thought there were two of them."

Draconian looked back. "Hey I got to make a living somehow!" A bullet hit the wood of the door frame right next to him, making him flinch. "See ya!" And with that, Draconian jumped to the roof once more and shot off, leaving a laughing barkeeper behind him.

* * *

It had taken him only a few minutes to blow off the navy men, but it had took Draconian about an hour to find his place, since during the rush he had gotten himself even more lost. After a while he was able to find the place where Gold Roger was hung, and once that was done he easily remembered the route back to the docks. So, still staying to the roofs, Draconian ran back to where his ship was docked.

Thankfully, there were no navy ships surrounding it, so they had no idea it was his, or they were just waiting to ambush him. Either way, he was lucky, because even if they were waiting for him, he could easily get away.

So, with after back up to the other side of the roof, Draconian went into a headlong charge. He jumped right off the edge of the roof, giving a blast of fire for some aid, and sailed right towards his ship. With the blast of fire he was able to easily make the ship, landing on the deck in a roll.

Once he had gotten up, Draconian headed to the side of the ship and brought up his ramp. He then sought out the rope holding the ship to the dock, which only took a few seconds, and blasted a ball of fire right where it connected with the dock, burning right through it and releasing Draconian's ship.

Immediately, navy men started to swarm the docks, just as Draconian had expected, some of them going to other ships. This sight made Draconian laugh, and with a casual walk, as if he had all the time in the world, Draconian head to the front of his ship, which was still pointed towards the docks. He raised up his hand and aimed them towards the docks and down, and immediately fire erupted along his arms and shot out. It slammed right into the water below the dock, giving his ship an extra push and enabling him to head a good distance out. Not only that, but the contact of fire and water created a wall of steam, completely blocking the navy men's view of him.

Draconian turned around, giving another laugh as he did so, and jumped to his mast, unfurling the sail in only a few seconds. He then traveled down the length of his ship, doing what he needed to do to get his ship back up to its full potential. Finally, he ended up at the back, where the steering wheel was, and gave a huge spin of it, just completely turning his ship around in about half a minute.

The wind caught the sails, leading the ship along its route, and Draconian went back to the middle of the ship. He lifted up the little trapdoor in his ship and walked down the steps, heading down to his cabin.

Just because he felt like it, Draconian lighted a few of his candles when he entered the room by giving a few flicks of his fingers. He headed right over to the pile of wanted papers his father had given him and started to rifle through.

The picture he was looking for was right at the bottom, and pictured on it was a boy, probably eighteen years old, with his left hand holding a straw hat on his head. The name on the paper said MONKEY D. LUFFY, and the price was thirty million beli, just as the barkeep had said.

"Hmm, wonder why dad put him on the bottom." He tacked the picture on his board and went back behind his desk, sitting down in his chair and placing his feet on the desk. His eyes studied the picture of the boy as his hand started to dig in his pocket, finally picking out the Grand Compass his father had given him.

"Well, Monkey D. Luffy, it seems you and I will meet in the Grand Line, I'm not sure when, but we will, that I promise." And Draconian tossed the compass in the air, catching it once it fell back down with a steely look in his eyes.

For him it was on to the Grand Line, where his adventure was really going to begin.

* * *

Sorry it took so long, but it took a while to finish the story I was writing with Anters, and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to wait till I've seen more of the Baroque Works arc or just write this chapter now. As you can see, I decided to just write it. Hopefully you liked this one, I decided to just do a quick fight scene, no reason to get big for the guys Draconian was fighting. As you can see, I decided to have this chapter kind of be the one that signifies him finally bursting into fame, so that people now know who he his. Now, there are a few things that I need to address, first of all being about the problem with his fruit. I apologize, when I started I hadn't realized there was only one of each fruit, I thought there would be more than one, I'm sorry. But don't worry, I have a great way to fix it, it'll be in the chapter that Draconian meets Portgas. Now, it seems that a lot of my reviewers, actually I think it's everyone, disagrees with me on Shanks being a Shichibukai, and are wondering where I heard this. Well, I read it on the internet, and here's the site.

www **dot **absoluteanime **dot** com **slash** one piece **slash**

Hopefully fanfiction let it through, as you can guess the **dot **means period, and the **slash **is, well you should know that. Don't stick one piece together, you'll need to put that little bottom line between them. If you have no idea what I mean, hold shift and push the key that makes the dash that goes between words, like fire-starter. And just stick it all together and you get the site. If the site didn't come up above, then I'll just email you guys, is that okay? Well, once you go to the site, there's a list of character names at the bottom that you can click on to get info about the people. Just click on Shanks and go to the bottom of his information box to the last few sentences, they say that he is one of the Shichibukai. Now, how about I stop talking and get to reviews, eh?

**Tuklight:** Thanks for the info on Smoker's sword, I saw this picture that someone drew and it looked like a club, I have no idea what the hell that person was thinking.

**Hutchy: **I don't really see it as introducing the main characters, more like just building the idea of them in Draconian's mind(or something like that). I'm not really sure about that fan club thing, tell me how to get to them, is it a C2 thing? I think I might check them out.

**Lenna Hunter: **Thank you, I promise that I'll keep it all up, now did your review come after reading all the chapters or just the first? I'm curious.

**Resident-Evil-playa: **Okay, no more coffee for you until _after _reviewing, seriously you're just hyper when you do this stuff. Now, in answer to your question, of course they can go through episodes without fighting, I just wanted to make a story where there's a fight in every chapter; you know, something different. I'm glad that you enjoy my story even though you have no clue as to what the hell is happening. Well, please keep reviewing, you may be crazy but I still like you.

**Iwin Ulose: **Don't think I didn't forget you. I'd like to apologize, I wasn't specific in what I said in the last chapter, and you misunderstood a couple things. First of all, I'm sorry, but I wasn't actually talking about my story, just the battles, and when I meant battles I don't mean the skill that I write them. What I meant was the battles in themselves were good, like if you were going to just get rid of all the writing and transform it into the television, I think the fight would be really good. Also, I have no idea why the hell I said "in fanfiction," I think I just meant the One Piece section of fanfiction, sorry about that. Now, here's where you misunderstood, unless of course you forgot, I never actually said I was better than _you_, I just said I thought I was one of the best. But, there is one thing that really seems odd, if I am correct it was _you _who said I was the best action/adventure you had ever read, so why is it you're the one pointing out this? Just curious. I hope that this doesn't cause some kind of tension between you and me, because I love your reviews, hopefully me and you can stay... whatever we were. I'll TTYL.

Okay, I'm looking forward to all your reviews. Speaking of it, I kind of miss Dollar1, now that guy was a good reviewer, I hope he hears me and reviews again. Well, I've got to go guys, next chapter will be Reverse Mountain and Misty Peak. Read and Review!


	8. Into the Grand Line

Into the Grand Line

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

Draconian shut the hatch above, putting him in darkness with only the sound of the rain thudding on his ship and thunder booming in the cloudy sky. He held his hand up, igniting a small fireball in his palm so as to make the darkness cower in its own shadows and reveal the wooden staircase leading down to the storehouse and his cabin.

The ship had only been in the storm for about a minute, but already Draconian was completely soaked. Normally, he would just consider a storm like this as nothing, but this wasn't normally. Dark clouds covered the sky all the way to the horizon, obviously a signal to the start of the Grand Line.

With heavy thumps, Draconian walked down the wooden staircase towards his cabin, making a squeak with every step. His hair was no longer spiked, the long locks hanging over his bandana and plastered against his face. He looked as if he had just jumped into the sea so much water was covering his body. This was easily remedied, however, as a thin lick of flame, barely a centimeter thick, started to cover his body. Steam started to slowly roll off of his skin and clothes, slowly drying him off until his vest no longer clung to his chest and his skin wasn't so wet that even sand paper would slip off it.

Draconian reached his cabin, his body almost completely dry, and opened the door. The fireball in his hand split up into many smaller balls, each of them shooting out of his palm and landing on a candle, basking the room in a soft, flickering light.

With a weary sigh, Draconian headed over to his small book shelf. He reached his hand up and absentmindedly picked out a small book from the top shelf. After throwing the book on his desk, Draconian went over to his chair and flopped down. His head fell down to rest on top of his left hand as his eyes fell on the book before him.

The cover was tattered and brown, not a single word was found on it. It was pretty old, Draconian wasn't really sure how much, but he knew it was older than him. Many pages were sticking out, those being the ones that couldn't handle sticking to the binder any more after so long. Inside this book was every single bit of information about the Grand Line that Draconian had heard over his years. Each bit of information, even the most crazy of rumors, was essential to his survival of this wild land. It was one of his most prized possessions.

Giving a sigh, Draconian reached forward and grabbed the book, flipping open the thin cover to reveal his thin writing. After a while of flipping through, putting back the torn off pages as he did so, Draconian found the area he was looking for.

"Let's see... after going through the storm, that's a no brainer... come to Reverse Mountain... each of the four seas... yeah, yeah already know that... here we go, there's a river running up the mountain, at the top meeting up with the other rivers. This then pours down one side of the mountain to empty into the Grand Line... what, I'm still not in the damn thing?" Draconian tossed the book back on the desk and stood up, walking back towards the door.

Once more summoning a ball of fire, Draconian walked back up the wooden stairs. He stopped once he had gotten to the small "fork" and turned left, heading down the other side to where the storehouse was.

The fireball grew in size, creating enough light to make the whole place visible. Draconian headed over to where he kept some clothes and searched through the small rack. After a while he picked out a green raincoat and turned around, heading right back out and once more going up the stairs. He pulled the raincoat down over his head, completely covering his body in the green tarp so that only his head showed.

With a small push, Draconian opened up the hatch, letting in the heavy rain so that it splashed down upon the stairs. Immediately, he stepped out onto the deck of his ship and closed the hatch once more.

The rain came down in sheets, as if the sea itself had rose up in the air and was now falling upon the earth whence it came. Wind relentlessly blew through the air, making good sized waves which continually reached out, hands trying to grab onto anything and pull it down to the bottom of the water's stomach.

Draconian had already unfurled the sails, afraid that the force of the wind against them might completely topple the ship into the endless darkness of the sea below. Even without it, though, his small ship rocked side to side, just waiting for a push large enough to send it completely sideways. If it hadn't been for all the other storms in which his ship had proven itself, Draconian would have been afraid for his life.

With measured steps, Draconian headed towards the back of his ship. All the years of training had given Draconian a kind of graceful balance, but even with that he kept stumbling across the wet floor as the ship rocked from side to side. It took him a while, but he finally reached the steering wheel, which he had lashed down just minutes before going to his cabin so as not to veer off course.

After untying the knots, Draconian took ahold of the wheel, making sure to keep it steady. Surprisingly, the wheel didn't move, just stayed right where it was. So, with a relaxed grip, Draconian rested his hands on the handholds, casually starting to move it side to side so it didn't leer to far in one direction.

It didn't budge.

Draconian looked down at the wheel curiously and started to pull it to the left. Once again, the wheel didn't budge a centimeter, only staying in one position. Giving a furrow of his brow, Draconian tugged on the wheel, just pulling it out to the side to try and turn it, but even with his strength it barely moved.

This definitely wasn't good for Draconian. Moving crazily left and right from the wind was one thing, but at least it could be controlled. But when the rudder locks up, there's pretty much no way to stop you from crashing into something. At the moment there wasn't much to worry about, at least he'll stay on a straight course, but once he gets to the mountain there's a good chance that the ship is going to crash into a wall. There seemed to be only one real option for Draconian at the moment.

Just sit back and wait.

* * *

The rain splashed against Draconian's face as he stood at the front of the ship. His eyes squinted through the thick sheet of water, looking ahead so that he could try and see the mountain soon enough that he had time to prepare. He had been at this ever since he learned the wheel had stuck, not really knowing what he would so when he saw the mountain but looking nonetheless.

Normally Draconian would have gone up the crow's nest to try and get a better view, but with winds such as these he was afraid that the thing might lean over a little too much. And besides, for all he knew it might be even harder to see things up there.

Suddenly, his view of the air in front of him seemed to darken. Draconian leaned forward, his body now hanging just above the dragon's head, and squinted his eyes so tight it looked as if his eyeballs might get squished. As the darkness became clearer, Draconian could start making out different colors. The darkness started to form itself into a giant wall, stretching up into the sky until he could see no more. The surface of it was made out of rough rock but was slick with rain.

One last thing appeared through the rain. A path of water ran up the side of the mountain, heading into the abyss of the sky above. It was wide enough to take a ship up it, but two wouldn't fit. Interestingly, there were stone arches lined up in the beginning of the reversed river, surrounding the water like guardians making sure the playful waves didn't wander out of bounds. They were made out of a white stone and were each beautifully carved, each of the two pillars on each bending ninety degrees to form together and create the top of each archway. From what Draconian could see, they didn't line the whole river, as they stopped a far way from the start of the river but didn't disappear along with it.

Unfortunately, the river was some distance to the left of Draconian's ship, which meant that with the stuck wheel he would crash into the rocky wall. Instead of running back to try and move the wheel again, however, Draconian moved to the right side of the front of his ship.

After a while of being at the front of the ship, Draconian's mind had started to form an idea on what to do if he needed to steer. It was probably had a fifty-fifty chance of working, but it was the only thing he could think of.

Draconian sat on top of the railing, keeping his legs inside the ship and his back to the water. He fell backwards, his legs hooking on the rail by the knees and keeping his body suspended. His back was leaning against the wooden side of the ship, his head pointed straight down.

Fire erupted along the length of Draconian's arms as he raised them up, both palms flat and pointed at the water. With a shout, a huge blast of fire stormed out of Draconian's hands, flying through the air and slamming into the sea far out to the right.

At first, nothing happened, other than the steam rising from where the fire poured into the sea. But slowly, oh so slowly, the ship started to move to the left, giving a creaking groan as the fire pushed it to fight the immovable rudder. After a while, the turning gained in speed, moving from the rate of a snail to almost that of the ship under regular conditions.

Draconian kept the fire up, only stopping when he pulled his body back up to see his position compared to that of where the river started. It took him a good while to get the desired course, the steam from where the flames hit water now created a small cloud to the right of his ship, and when he was lined up pretty well his ship was just a minute away from the crashing waves of the mountain's side.

With a heave, Draconian hoisted himself back up, jumping off the rail as soon as his spine was once again pointed up. His plan wasn't finished, though, so Draconian went over to the dragon's head, where he started to study his specific position in terms with the entrance to the river. The ship wasn't completely center with the passageway, and with the waves crashing against the mountain having such a high force, there was a good chance that they'd jerk the ship a little too much in one direction.

As the ship got closer and closer to the river's entrance, Draconian's heart beat faster and faster, his nerves standing on end at the thought of what might happen. It could all end right here for him, his whole life's work gone because of some damn waves playing against the side of his ship.

But it wouldn't, he vowed, not after so long, he wouldn't lose to something like this, of all the fights he had gotten into he had only lost one, and he was going make sure it stayed that way.

The ship finally made it to the mouth of the giant beast, and Draconian set his legs firmly into the ground. Just as he had thought, the ship bucked to the right from the waves, the end of the giant's tongue trying to smash him against its teeth.

Giving a shout of defiance, Draconian raised his right arm and pointed it towards the side of the wall. Fire erupted from his hand in a torrent of heat, lunging from Draconian's hand to smash into the rock wall. The ship started to slow down in its jump towards the side, but Draconian knew it wasn't enough. He turned to fully face the wall and raised his other arm up, sending a second blast of fire to join its brother in the fight.

The ship sharply slowed down as Draconian pushed against the rock wall so that it went from a bucking horse to the speed of a turtle. It still moved towards the wall, it would most likely reach it in a few seconds, except that it didn't have a few seconds. Already the ship was past the waves at the mouth of the passageway, and the river had taken hold of it, straightening it out and moving it up the mountain.

Draconian gave a sigh and sank to his knees, the fire on his arms dissipating into the air. Slowly, his mouth started to form a smile, a sign of how overjoyed he was to have just beaten this great foe. Soon, laughter joined his smile, starting small and increasing in size until Draconian had to steady himself with his hands so as not just collapse on the deck of the ship.

After the laughing had subsided, Draconian pushed himself up from his position on the deck and walked up to the head of the ship. Already his ship had passed all the archways and was now on its trip up, the river going up it just as well as if it was going down.

Draconian leaned on the back of the dragon's head, look forward at the river before him. After a while the mountain side started to slope up a little steeper, and Draconian's ship started to head towards the clouds.

It took only a few seconds and Draconian's ship blasted above the clouds. The mountain steepened even further so that the river was almost vertical. At the top of the mountain, which peaked at a height higher than any other thing Draconian had seen, the river splashed up to join the spray of water Draconian could only guess as the rivers from the other three seas.

Immediately after going above the clouds, Draconian's eyes were riveted to the scene around him. The world above the clouds was bright and beautiful, the bright tops of clouds stretched for miles around the mountain. Of all the things that Draconian had seen in his life, this was definitely the most wondrous of a sight.

Once he had finished gazing at the beauty around him, Draconian's mind once more focused on the task before him. He knew what it would be like at the top; there would only be a split second of time for him to turn his ship at a sharp angle and head down the river that poured into the Grand Line.

His muscles tensed in apprehension as the ship got closer and closer to the top of the mountain. The air started to get colder as he climbed ever higher, but was easily kept away as Draconian covered his body in a thin coat of flame.

Finally, Draconian could see the very top of the mountain. The water from the rivers that splashed up instantly froze in midair, sending icicles flying up to dance in the sun's light, only to come back down and join the flowing water down the side of the mountain leading to the Grand Line.

Draconian had already formed a plan on what he would do, hoping beyond hope that the river would do what he thought it would. And so, getting in preparation for the top, Draconian moved once more to the right side of the ship at the front, this time just sitting on top of the rail instead of hanging upside-down from it.

With a rush, the river launched Draconian's ship into the air to hover over the joined rivers below. Fire swirled around his arms, and with another shout from Draconian erupted from his hands.

Immediately, the ship swung sharply around to the left, the air flowing around it freely opposed to the water, which would have slowed it down greatly. Once lined up with the river flowing down, which was located right next to the river the ship had climbed up, Draconian extinguished his flames and hopped back into the ship.

The ship fell straight down, giving a rush of air that made Draconian grip onto the rail just so he didn't fall off. It landed with a huge splash, sending a great amount of water back up into the air, only to freeze once more into the dancing icicles.

That didn't stop the ship, however, as it immediately went right down the river, aided by the flow of the other four waterways emptying into the passage.

Draconian stood right at the edge of the railing, his hands still gripping it so hard it looked as if he'd rip part of it off. He gave a few blinks, his mind doing its best to try and take this in. After a year of traveling, he had finally done it; he had entered the Grand Line. Every single pirate's dream, other than finding One Piece of course.

A small laugh came out of his throat, sounding more like a cough when it made the trip. Another one came after it, soon followed by an even bigger laugh after that. They were followed by a long train of joyous laughs, and for the second time that day Draconian fell down laughing.

He had made it; Draconian was heading into the Grand Line.

* * *

Draconian took a sip from the mug in his hands, giving a grin while he did so as he looked upon the party around him. People were drinking, singing, dancing, everything you'd expect at a party and more. At the moment there was a girl leaning against the right side of his body, her hands wrapped around his arm.

"So, what else have you been up to other than conquering the seas, got a girl in your life yet?" She had short brown hair that came down to her jaw line, and she couldn't have been older than twenty-five or so. Interestingly, she was wearing a tight, red silk dress, but could move in it just as well as Draconian moved in his own clothes.

"Well, not yet at least." He pulled her a little closer to his body, in which she responded by snuggling into his side.

"Draconian!" The voice erupted from a group of people nearby, and out walked the mayor of the city. He was wearing a black pinstriped suit, a red handkerchief in the breast pocket and a Capone hat resting on top of his head. His height was at about five feet ten inches, and his face gleamed as if he had been laughing his whole life. Oddly enough, the suite and hat made him look like part of a mafia or something.

With a huff, the mayor fell into the seat next to Draconian, draping his arm across the swordsman's shoulders in a friendly manner. "How are you doing so far, what do you think of the drink?"

Draconian gave another grin and raised an eyebrow. "So far, I'm doing pretty well. And as for the drink, it's the best I've ever had, and I don't usually like alcohol."

The mayor belted out another laugh and pounded Draconian on the back. "What did I tell you? Misty Peak makes the best! Now, are you sure you don't want to join the meat pie eating contest? It's a hundred thousand beli."

"Nah." He gave a wave of his hand. "I'm not really the kind of guy that can just eat like that."

"Oh?" A glint appeared in the man's eye. "I bet I could _persuade _a few people to... go easy on you."

At this Draconian belted out a laugh. "Sorry, but I don't like cheating. Besides, I bet even with that kind of help I'd still lose."

This caused both of them to break into another series of laughs.

It had only been a little while after coming out of the river that Draconian's ship had come upon the island, which he later learned was called Misty Peak. As soon as he had entered the city, he was greeted with a huge cheer as the whole city came out to welcome him. After that he had met with the mayor, and soon after that the greeting party was thrown, which most of the townspeople set into with abandon.

The girl on Draconian's arm traced a finger along his jaw line, her gaze intent on his face. "You have the most beautiful eyes..."

Draconian cast a warm smile down at the girl. "What can I say, I get them from my father." He then pulled her in closer, causing her to squeak in pleasant surprise.

The mayor of the city chuckled softly. "Well, it looks like you two have some talking to do, so I think I'll just go." He started to move out of the booth, only to stop as another man plopped down right next to him, blocking the exit.

It looked as if the guy had too much coffee; his body looked as if it was always twitching. On his head was a shock of messy orange hair, which looked as if a hand had just messed it up. He was wearing a wrinkled yellow shirt with an unbuttoned, skewed denim jacket over it and a pair of tattered jeans.

"Hey guys how you doin' I just got back from the contest it looks like the competition should be easy maybe I should join what do you think?" His mouth moved without pausing as his eyes flicked excitedly about the room.

"Might as well, sadly Draconian isn't going to join in, so at least you'll have a fair chance. Now move, I've got to get out." He tried to push the man out, only failing as the man got even twitchier.

"What you aint going to be in the contest that's too bad I'm sure you'd win so where you from when were you born what's your favorite color can you show me some nice sword tricks huh huh huh huh?" By now he was literally hopping up and down in his seat in excitement.

"Uhh... hey, look, the contest is starting!" Draconian pointed over to the table to where the pies were laid out.

"Really?" The man looked over his shoulder. "Okay got to go see you later." He shot off to the table and immediately started eating the pies, not even noticing that no one else had started.

The mayor gave a sigh. "Thanks, I was afraid he'd start one of his hour long rants. He's a good man all in himself but just a little too... excited for his own good. I'll talk to you later; hopefully you'll be able to escape him before he learns of your trick. But I wouldn't worry about that, it usually takes him about an hour to figure that stuff out." With a groan, the mayor moved out of the booth and started to walk away.

"Wait." Draconian called out, making the mayor turn around in curiosity. "I'm going to need to find the magnetic position of this island, is there any place in the city with navigation books where I can work?"

"Sure, there's a map room in the library, it's just around the corner, you're welcome to go in it."

"Thanks." And with that, he turned back to the girl on his arm, leaving the mayor to walk away. "So, what shall we talk about next?"

With a mischievous smile, the girl leaned up and whispered something into Draconian's ear. Soon after, a blush spread over his face.

* * *

Draconian walked out of the bar, leaving it filled with collapsed drunks and many empty tankards. Luckily, he had only drank one mug; even if it was the best drink he'd had, he would still follow his self rule of only a little alcohol at a time.

He turned to where the mayor had indicated the library was, only to swing right around the other way to point in the direction of his ship. It had just hit him that he might want to make his own little map of his path through the Grand Line, and to do that he'd probably need some materials from his ship.

Plus, he had accidentally left the Grand Compass back in his cabin.

So, with an easy gait, Draconian strolled over to the harbor, enjoying the night air as he did so. The buildings around him stood like big, spaced out square blocks, giving the place a feeling of desertion yet, at the same time, giving a kind of cozy feeling in the light of the moon.

Unfortunately, the path between the harbor and the bar wasn't exactly a straight line, and after a few hours at the party Draconian had a hard time remembering exactly where to go. More than a few times he had to backtrack in his steps, and after a while he just gave up and decided to take the easy way out.

So, hopping back and forth between the walls of two buildings, Draconian landed on the rooftops. With a quick gaze he spotted the harbor and set off across the tops of the buildings.

He reached his ship in less than a minute, immediately jumping in it and going down through the hatch. For a couple minutes the night air was silent, until the hatch opened up to reveal Draconian carrying some papers, writing utensils, and measuring devices. In his right pocket was the Grand Compass.

Once again, Draconian jumped on top of a roof, not trusting himself to remember the way to the bar by ground. His steps were once again easy and calm as he walked through the night. Instead of looking for the bar, his eyes focused on the sky above him. The stars covered the black expanse of the night sky, surrounding the beautiful face that was the moon.

After a while of walking, the soft hum of voices from the street reached Draconian's ears. At first he just ignored it, until a specific sentence came out loud and clear, catching his attention.

The first voice was that of a woman. "Well, well, Mr. Seven, it seems we've reeled in a nice bounty in this one."

Draconian stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening in surprise. "Seven?" His lips mouthed silently.

"Nice is an understatement, Saturday, this is the biggest bounty that I've ever gotten." This voice was from a man.

The first voice, probably Saturday, gave a laugh. "What do you mean _gotten_? From what I've seen, we haven't even made a move yet."

"So? I'm going to get it anyways; there hasn't been a single bounty that I've lost. Besides, it's a whole city against one person; do you really think he'll escape?"

By his time Draconian had gotten down and had inched to the edge of the roof, just barely keeping his head visible as he stared down at the people talking.

There were three people in the street; the one who had just talked was the mayor, who must have been Mr. Seven. It was obvious who Saturday was, as there was only one girl there; it was actually the one that he had been talking with earlier. Finally, the orange-haired hyper person was also with them.

Saturday gave a little tisk. "Well, a city wasn't enough to stop that Straw Hat kid when he came here, and that was only when facing the swordsman. Plus, Five and Valentine had come down then too, and if they lost to someone with a bounty of thirty-million beli, what do you think are the chances that members of our rank will beat someone with a bounty of thirty-five million?"

Seven rolled his eyes. "Number Five? Please, I'm easily better than that pathetic freak; everyone knows that I should be Five instead of Seven."

For once the twitchy person interjected. "Yeah but the thing is you're not which I admit must not feel that good but I bet you'll get it soon I mean he's sure to get a demotion or something just look at me I mean when the original members in this city were found to be traitors and gotten rid of I got moved right up from Ten to Eight which is just an honor I mean I knew I was better than Nine but EIGHT I always looked up to that guy too bad he was a traitor though I..."

"Eight." Seven interrupted. "Shut. The hell. Up."

With apparent difficulty, Eight closed his mouth and bowed his head in silence.

Saturday gave a small chuckle and moved so that she was walking in front of Seven. "He's right, you know, sooner or later you'll get to the rank of Five, and I'll be right by your side when you do."

A low growl escaped Seven's lips. "I don't want the rank _sooner or later_, I want it now, and I'm sure this bounty will get me what I want."

Saturday pursed her lips in a pout and looked behind her at Seven. "What you want? You make it sound as if that rank is more important than me."

With another growl, this one filled with animalistic lust, Seven walked right behind Seven and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Of course it's not, dear, you know that. No matter how much I want something in business, I'll always want you more."

"Hmm," Saturday turned around and wrapped her own arms around his neck. "I guess that I'll have to believe you. But, just in case... that Draconian did have a nice body." She looked off to the side, pretending to be considering the possibility of Draconian as a partner.

Seven bared his teeth and chuckled. "Yeah, like you're going to go to that guy. If you forgot, I know you better than you know yourself, and from what I remember there are specific... perks to a person you like in bed that only I can fill." He accentuated this by pulling her closer and stroking her back.

With a sigh, Saturday traced a finger along Seven's neck and jaw line. "Are you sure you really know me that well? I may like specific perks with a person, but I don't mind settling for nice bodies, especially when they're really... _nice_."

A look of knowing showed itself behind Seven's eyes. "True, but why would you settle for a nice body when you can easily have this." With that, he grabbed the back of her head and pushed her face into his for a forceful kiss. After only a second, her hand found its way behind his head and the two continued to push into each other.

It was about a minute before the two separated, their breaths slight labored as they took in air. Saturday turned back around to get out of Seven's embrace and grabbed his hand, dragging him along with her. "Come on, I need to get this little urge fulfilled now."

Giving a mischievous smile, Seven followed willingly behind her. "I'm right behind you, dear."

Eight lifted his head up and started to call after the two. "Hey wait when are we going to get the guy's bounty?"

Seven shouted back at Eight. "We'll do it once he's asleep, just in case."

A few more twitches hit Eight's body as he looked around, not really sure what to do. After a few seconds of silence, he ran off down one of the alleys, looking about for anything to do.

Draconian stood back up, giving a sigh as he did so. "Baroque Works again? This is the second time in a week. Why the hell can't I just find an island where there _aren't _people trying to kill me? Well, I guess this is what happens when word of you spreads."

Turning his walk into a dead run, Draconian continued his look for the bar, which eventually would lead to the library. "I've got to get there and do my things fast, otherwise I'm going to have a whole city on my back faster than you can say ahoy."

He had no idea if it was luck or if he was just close, but it only took Draconian a few seconds to locate the bar. From there, he ran along the rooftops of the buildings on the street, coming to the intersection that Seven had earlier mentioned. There was no real reason to keep going along the roofs, since the library should've been close; so Draconian hopped off the building to the ground below, slowing his fall with a burst of fire.

Once on the ground, Draconian ran through the intersection, looking left and right for any signs of the building he could think of. Just as Seven had said, Draconian found the library at the beginning of the intersection, or in other words right around the corner.

It pretty much looked like any other building at night, except that in big letters was carved LIBRARY above the door. The doors to the front were open, probably opened by Seven so that Draconian could use the map room.

Draconian rushed in, looking around for any signs of, well, anything. There wasn't anyone at the desk, or anywhere else that he could see. But that still left a lot of places he couldn't see, since the place was filled with shelves of books, blocking the view of much of the room.

With cautious steps, Draconian started to walk around the room, sticking to the walls, this way if there were people hiding he'd be able to see them and wouldn't be trapped between book shelves, open for attack. His walk didn't reveal anyone hiding, and if anyone would know it'd be him. If he couldn't see them, which would be difficult because of Draconian's sharp eyes, he would have most likely heard them, seeing as they would probably have to keep moving to escape his vision.

It did reveal one thing interesting, that being a staircase leading to the second floor of the building. Most likely it also lead to the map room, since Draconian hadn't found any doors in his search either.

Eyes wary, Draconian walked up the wooden steps to the second floor. It wasn't really that much to look at, not like the downstairs. Pretty much, the second floor was a hallway with a few doors on each side and one at the very end.

Draconian walked down the hallway, looking at each door as he passed. He kept his hand on the hilt of his katana, ready just in case someone jumped out.

Not surprising, the door at the end of the hallway read MAPS, making it so that only complete idiots wouldn't know it was the map room.

With a light push, Draconian opened the door, staying back as he did so as not to be caught surprise. It opened up to reveal a small room, about the size of his cabin, at the center of which was a good sized desk. Along the wall was a shelf crammed full with books and scrolls, obviously the maps.

He dumped everything he was holding onto the desk and took out the Grand Compass given to him by his father. And with frantic hands, Draconian went over to the shelf and passed his fingers over the spine of the books, looking for something good.

After a few moments, he found the books he needed, and with some quick movements tossed them down on the desk. Immediately he grabbed a feather, ink bottle, and a piece of paper and opened one of the books.

Over the next couple hours; or maybe it was just a couple minutes, Draconian wasn't completely sure of how the time went, it all just blended together; Draconian searched through all the books there was on the desk, finding the information he needed. His hands were constantly moving, his left turning the pages of the book while the right wrote down what he needed; they seemed almost a blur. The only time that he deviated from writing was when he would adjust the compass.

With a sigh, Draconian closed the last book, setting his feather aside after finishing the last of his writing. He looked over the last page that he had written, scanning through everything in case there was something he missed.

Giving an approving nod, Draconian lifted the Grand Compass so that he held it just in front of his eyes. With a careful hand, he slowly turned the little dial on the glass orb, until with a satisfying click it landed on the final digit needed. The needle swiveled from the string it hung from, landing so that it pointed out to sea, where the next island lay ahead for Draconian.

Draconian placed the compass back in his pocket and stretched, giving a small groan as he did so. Pushing back the chair, he stood back up and walked around the desk. Grabbing the books, he walked towards the shelf and placed them back in their original positions.

As he started to turn around, Draconian's eyes spotted something interesting. His eyes full of curiosity, he turned back around and looked back at the book shelf. Immediately he spotted a thick, leather-bound book, which read _Maps of Grand Line _along the spine.

With a grin, Draconian plucked the book from the shelf, immediately staggering as the weight caught him off guard. Giving a small chuckle, he heaved the book up to his shoulder and turned around once more. He finally walked over to the front of the room and opened the door to exit.

Only to be faced with a hallway full of Baroque Works employees brandishing various guns and blades.

"Well, well," the leader of the bunch tapped the end of his rifle in his palms, "what could we be doing up at this hour? Not thinking of leaving the island, I hope."

"Actually," Draconian responded, "I really need a bathroom break."

"Hmm, I don't think that's true at the moment, but I'm sure it will be after this." He snapped his rifle up to point at Draconian and pulled the trigger.

Draconian rolled to the side, dropping the book as he did so, and taking cover to the right of the door. Other shots erupted from the hallway as the rest of the people followed suit with the leader. Bullets went flying through the doorway, ripping through the frame and smashing into the desk and wall at the other end of the room.

Luckily, Draconian had gotten far enough away from the door frame, as bullets sailed right through the walls along the door, creating an outline of holes. Almost innocently, the book that Draconian had dropped lay just in the middle of the doorway, kind of reminding him of a child standing in the middle of a crossfire.

Just as soon as the shots had started did they stop, giving Draconian only a moment's notice for action.

That was all he needed.

Draconian snapped around the doorway, slipping his swords out of their sheaths as he did so. In the snap of a finger, he was facing the crowd of townspeople once more, this time with his swords out. He rushed towards the huge crowd, his vocal cords screeching out an earthshaking battle cry as his swords erupted in flames.

"Blades of the Dragon Brethren!"

With Draconian so close, none of the shooters could take a shot without fear of injuring a comrade, and Draconian took full advantage of this. His swords slashed in an intricate blur as he moved through the crowd like it was regular air. All he needed was one quick slash for each person and they fell down like a row of logs.

People clutched at slashed arms, cuts to the chest, or fell down in unconsciousness from deep cuts and the shock of pain. Through all this, Draconian moved his body and swords in a graceful yet frenzy form of attack. He barely ever went right down the middle, using the sides of the hallway to get through the person's side. Constantly he was found jumping from the walls and the ceiling to come in at unexpected angles, laying his enemies low before they even knew where he was.

Once in a while there actually was some idiot who would try to shoot him, only to miss horribly as Draconian twisted to the side and cut him down. Smarter people, however, tried to slash him with a cutlass; only to fall down even faster than the people with the guns.

In no time Draconian reached the end of the hallway, leaving a trail of fallen, bleeding people to clog the hall behind him. As soon as he got to the end, however, another crowd of townspeople started to rush up the stairs.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Draconian jumped up and grabbed onto the edge of the wooden frame attached to the ceiling. Immediately upon grabbing it, his legs kicked out so that the flat of his feet were facing the crowd below him.

He let go of the frame only a second after he had first grabbed it. His body started spinning in midair, the swords out to the side to create a giant flaming wheel at the top of the stairs.

"Attack Fusion, Dragon Tornado Comet!"

Fire erupted from the edge of the spinning blades, creating a vortex of fire that completely covered the walls of the stairway and trapped the newcomers in a prison of heat. Draconian's body shot right through the middle of it, feet out and spinning, flames twisted around their length like a snake.

The new Baroque Work agents fell faster than the previous ones as every one of them was smashed by Draconian's feet. Even if they had dodged the flaming battering ram, the spinning blades behind them would cut them down just like they had done to the previous crowd.

Draconian reached the bottom of the staircase in only seconds, the people previously in his way now laying behind him bleeding, burned, and some even unconscious. Once more, however, he was faced with another challenge just as hard as the previous two as the first floor was packed with people. They were along the edges of the walls, in between the book cases, even on top of the book cases; it was just as crowded as the upstairs had been.

A glint reached Draconian's eyes as he gazed upon the men between the bookshelves. With a grin, he rushed forward, just barely dodging the new shots.

As soon as he had gotten to the nearest bookcase, Draconian jumped up and kicked his feet out. The giant thing tottered a few times, but after a while toppled down, knocking into the one behind it and starting a domino affect with all the others in the line as they all fell down one after another.

Right on top of the men between the cases.

Shouts rang out through the room as the men tried to get out, only to have the book case topple down on them before they could get out of the way. Draconian didn't pay any attention to these, however, as he ran to the next book case in the line. That one was knocked over just as easy, starting another chain reaction just like the first.

He moved through the whole room like this, going from shelf to shelf and knocking everyone standing over. Many times he would stop for a quick second and knock someone down with a flaming kick or a fast strike of the sword. At one point he even jumped up to knock a case down, then ricocheted off of the thing to land a spinning aerial kick on a few people near him.

In no time, the first floor was cleared. All the cases were fallen, all of them having people underneath, the conscious ones moaning in pain. Many others were laid out around or on top of the cases, either a burn mark on some part of their body or a deep cut running along them.

With a sigh, Draconian went over to the front of the building and walked out of the doors, slipping the swords back into their sheaths as he did so.

"What a surprise." His tone was dry as he looked upon the streets around him. Just as he had suspected, there were towns people pretty much everywhere he looked; in doorways, standing on the sidewalk, and many on the rooftops, all of them holding a gun or weapon of some sort.

The hand resting on his katana moved in a blur as he snapped his tanto out of its sheath. Immediately after doing so, a long tongue of flame erupted from the dagger's blade and reached out into the night.

"Dragon Whip!"

Draconian snapped the blade to the side, sending the length of flame to the top of a building to the side of him. It wrapped around the legs of one of the townsmen, and with a small tug lifted him off his feet and dragged him through the air. His path took him right down to the ground to crash into one of the people below.

Even before this had finished, Draconian had jumped over to the nearest person and smashed a flaming hand into his face. He then brought the whip around and wrapped it around a small group of people on the street. With a heave, he lifted them into the air and smashed them into the side of a building, almost sending them through in the process.

By this time, the people on the rooftops had started firing, peppering the ground around Draconian with bullets. This had Draconian moving left and right, bouncing off walls, and just plain doing insanely complicated maneuvers just to dodge the onslaught.

Thankfully, this problem was easily solved, as Draconian gave a snap of the whip. The flame reached up and wound around the barrels of every gun along the rooftops to the right of him. After giving another simple tug, all the guns were yanked out of the men's grasp, and those stupid enough to hold on were sent flying down to the concrete below.

Draconian gave another snap of the whip, easily getting all the rooftop guns on the other side of him. This only lead the people on the rooftops across the street left, and that meant he would have to cross so that he could get to them.

So, heading out in a dead run, Draconian ran towards the other side of the street. Bullets from the other buildings rained down upon him, making it so that he had to zigzag as he ran. As he ran, Draconian often had to kick or punch someone aside, lighting his feet and fists in flames so as to make sure they didn't get up for a good while.

His body spun around, bringing the whip to fly around in circles, grabbing onto random people as they crossed its path and hauling them up into the air. The bodies often smashed into other people who got into the path of the flaming circle, and those who didn't get hit were picked up to add to the length's numbers.

After he was almost at the other side, Draconian stopped his spinning and straightened out the length of flame. This sent the bodies of the townspeople in a head-on flight right into the wall of the buildings nearest them.

With two more casual snaps of the whip, Draconian took away all the weapons from the people on the rooftops; leaving the only people left with guns being the ones on the street.

As Draconian started to dispatch with the few people left on the street, and take down the people on the rooftops with his whip, Mr. Seven, Eight, and Saturday came in view of the tussle near the library.

"You idiot!" Seven smacked Eight over the head. "I told you to attack him after he fell asleep! Can't you follow one simple order! No wonder they hadn't promoted you before now!"

Eight's shaking turned from excited to frightened as he started to cower under Seven's upraised hand. "Sorry sir I guess the men just thought he'd fall asleep in the room and figured they'd wait outside until he went to bed I didn't have anything to do with that idea sir I promise please don't hurt me again I..."

"Shut it!" He slapped Eight once more. "If you want to make this up you better go over there and take care of him, now!"

With a gulp, Eight headed over to Draconian, who was just finishing off with the last townsmen.

Saturday gave a smirk as she watched Eight waddle off to battle the fiery teen, but soon got rid of it as Seven turned to her. "You're going too."

"What!" Saturday shouted. "Why do I have to go, I didn't do anything wrong."

"No," Seven answered in a level tone, "but I want this kid taken care of, and there's a better chance of that happening if Eight had help."

"Well why can't you go?" Saturday gave a pout and slowly leaned against Seven's frame suggestively. "Besides, I'm tired out as it is with all the 'action' that we just went through. Speaking of it, I bet you and I can get in some more tonight."

"If you've still got energy to go another round," Seven stated, his brow furrowed in annoyance, "then you have enough energy to go out there and help Eight. Now get moving, I want to see this kid's money in my pocket by tomorrow." He gave a push against the small of her back, sending her stumbling forward.

Meanwhile, Eight was now in sight of Draconian, who had just finished off with the last person and was slipping his tanto back into its sheath.

"Well Dracky boy," Eight said while reaching into his skewed jacket, "looks like you and me are headed into a one on one confrontation I guess it was expected seeing as I'm so good it's only a wonder you didn't ask sooner to fight a guy as great as me but I've got to warn you..."

"Don't call me Dracky," Draconian turned to stare at Eight, his eyes set in a cold gaze, "otherwise I'll beat your ass so hard you'll wish you were unconscious, and even so you'll still feel it. Now, stop the talking and bring it on, Eight."

"Ah I wondered if you heard that little conversation of ours or not but I guess I should shut up so that we can get to the fight which I can assure you you will lose." He pulled two things out of the inside of his jacket, one was a glass bottle filled with what could only be alcohol; the other was a black aluminum staff, a few feet long, with a round, cylindrical black pad at one end and a leather strap for holding at the other(like those things that fire eaters use).

Eight clicked something along the length of the staff, and soon after the black pad erupted in flames. With a grin, he took a deep swig of the alcohol, placing the flaming end of the staff in front of his face as he did so.

His cheeks puffed out, Eight blew out every drop of alcohol he had just took in, creating a huge swath of flames as the liquid hit the fireball in front of it. The swath took up half of the street's width and reached for Draconian like a giant's tongue.

Draconian gave a small chuckle and rolled his eyes. "Please."

Soon the rage of fire rolled over Draconian's body, completely eliminating every part of him from sight. This had Eight's cheeks go up in a grin as he continued blowing, taking a few more droughts of the drink to replenish his supply fast enough so that the original swath of flames didn't disappear before he began blowing again.

For a few more seconds Eight kept on blowing, the streets full of silence except for the roaring of the great tongue of fire reaching for every inch of air it could use for fuel. The grin on Eight's face was wider than ever as no clue of Draconian could be found, it looked as if the grin would stay on him forever.

Until Draconian's face appeared just inches from Eight's own.

Eight gave a yelp in surprise, almost dropping the staff and abruptly stopping the giant beast of fire in the process. The glass of alcohol fell from his grasp and shattered against the ground as he stumbled back.

With flaming fist drawn back, Draconian leaped towards the shocked Eight.

"Dragon Fist!"

His fist shot forward with deadly speed, smashing into Eight's face and sending him flying backwards. He landed with a thud just feet in front of Saturday, who was now carrying a red fan in each hand and holding them up in a battle stance.

"What's wrong?" Draconian asked. "Did I forget to call you?"

Saturday ran forward in response, her teeth bared as she let out a feral growl. Her hands struck like snakes, fans aiming for the warm veins in Draconian's neck. You could almost hear the wind whistle by as the fans cut through the air like a shark through water.

But Draconian was faster.

Draconian rotated his shoulders back and forth as he casually dodged the swift attacks. As the fans passed inches away from his face, Draconian caught a small glint in the moonlight, leading him to notice that the edges of the fans were covered in a sheet of metal sharp enough to easily cut through his skin as if it was melted butter.

He placed his hands in his pockets as Saturday continued to attack him, keeping his movements seeming as casual as possible. She relentlessly continued her onslaught, striking in every possible way she knew and doing it as fast as a snake, only to keep missing as Draconian easily dodged. He treated her attacks as if they were nothing, easily stepping to the side or bending his head back to dodge each attack by bare inches. Many times he would just rotate his body a little bit to let Saturday's fans pass just by his vest.

This went on for about a minute, Saturday's anger growing with every easily dodged strike. Her speed and frequency increased, her strikes coming right after another.

With the increase in attack, Draconian also stepped up his evasive actions, taking his hands out of his pockets and moving with even more speed and flexibility. Instead of just bowing his head back, he bent his body completely back, making himself look like a table with only two legs. His body moved left, right, back, up, down, and many other directions as Saturday's deadly fans sought his flesh.

Quite a few times, Draconian found himself flipping over attacks or doing some kind of quick maneuver to get out of the way of the deadly attacks. One time, after bending his body completely backwards again, as Saturday struck for his legs, Draconian braced his hands against the ground and bent his legs completely up so that they were now inches away from his body; Saturday then struck for his arms, prompting him to push the ground and flip completely backwards, landing back on his feet and dodging the strike.

"I'm not sure about you, baby," Draconian said while dodging a few of the strikes, "but I just don't think this will work out."

With a growl, Saturday struck both fans towards Draconian's head. He responded by ducking down and spinning completely around, stretching his leg out as he did and taking Saturday's feet out from under her.

Continuing his spin, Draconian placed his hands on the ground and lifted his legs up from the ground, lighting his feet on fire as he did so. Still spinning, he slammed the upraised feet into Saturday's side as she fell down, sending her tumbling off to the side.

Draconian stood back up and looked down at Saturday, who was pushing herself back up, teeth once more gritted in anger. He looked over to the side to where Eight, who had used the distraction from Saturday to get back up, was taking out a second black staff so that he now had one in each hand.

Eight rushed forward screaming, both staffs spinning around in circles as he held onto their leather straps, the flames making giant circles in the air as he ran.

All Draconian did was stand completely still as Eight rushed forward, not even moving a centimeter.

In no time Eight got to him and swung the first staff, having it smash against the side of Draconian's face. The second one came in right behind it and smashed against the other cheek and snapping the face to the right. Again the other staff came in, scoring another hit just as easy as the first two.

This went on a few more times, until finally Draconian snatched the staff in mid swing and head butted Eight squarely on the nose, sending him stumbling back a bit.

His face wasn't even damaged, the only evidence of fire touching it being a few ash marks that had carried over from the ends of the staffs. He gave an inquisitive look over to Eight, who was clutching his nose, which was most likely broken at the moment.

"You do realize that the term 'fighting fire with fire' isn't supposed to be literal, right?"

At the moment, Saturday had gotten back up and was now behind Draconian. Both she and Eight rushed Draconian at the same time, attacking him from both sides.

Even with both flaming staffs swinging and bladed fans striking, Draconian was able to dodge their attacks. His body moved in a complicated series of movements as he stood between the two attacking forces. Constantly he had to do aerial moves so as to dodge the four weapons, doing complicated series of flips and hand stands so the weapons wouldn't hit. Still, he barely missed them as they passed just centimeters from his skin.

Finally, after batting the staffs aside from an attack, Draconian jumped up and kicked off of Eight's chest, sending him stumbling back a few feet. He then landed his right foot on Saturday's shoulder and pushed, sending her backwards just like Eight and sending himself up into the air.

Draconian came right back down, doing a back flip as he did so and landing on one hand. Saturday and Eight had already recovered from the kicks and once more rushed towards Draconian.

His legs spread out so that they made a flat T with his body. Flames erupted from the feet and spread over his legs as Draconian started to spin.

"Dragon Hurricane!"

The legs spun around in a blur, creating a huge flaming circle and knocking right into Saturday's and Eight's bodies, sending them hurtling back to land hard on the ground.

Eight was the first to get up, his first order of business being to, once again, charge at Draconian with staffs spinning.

Draconian stopped his spinning and landed back on his feet. Instead of just standing still for Eight like he did before, Draconian grabbed both staff's flaming ends in midair, the fire licking at his hands doing nothing to affect him.

Giving a shout, Draconian jumped up, still holding on to the staffs, and tucked his feet up so that they were parallel with Eight's chest.

"Dragon Stampede!"

His flame covered feet struck out, slamming over and over into Eight's chest, creating burned footmarks wherever they hit. The only thing keeping Eight standing throughout the onslaught was the fact that Draconian was holding onto the staffs, which had their leather straps wrapped tightly around Eight's hands.

After delivering an uncountable number of kicks, Draconian finally let go of the staffs and spun around in midair, delivering one final, powerful kick to Eight and sending him flying off to the side to land with a solid thump on the ground.

He landed solidly with both feet facing Saturday, who was now in a mad rush towards Draconian. Both fans struck straight out towards Draconian's chest, the blades at the end of them gleaming brightly in the moonlight.

Draconian ducked out to the side, his right hand slipping the katana back out of its sheath. Flames erupted along its length as Draconian reversed his grip so that the blade was pointing backwards.

"Dragon Thrust!"

The katana stabbed backwards, going right through the weak paper of both fans. He gave a spin of the sword, reverting it back to its original position, and pulled the fans right out of Saturday's hands.

Once the fans were taken away, Draconian spun around, his right leg drawn back and lit up on flames.

"Dragon Sledgehammer!"

As Draconian completed his spin, standing upright as he did so, he swung his flaming foot to slam into Saturday's side. This sent her flying to the side, all the way to the other side of the street to smash into one of the walls.

With a sigh, Draconian slipped his katana back into its sheath, the flames on it once more extinguished. An angry shout vibrated through the air to Draconian's right, prompting him to turn his head towards the frustrated Seven.

"Why is it that I am surrounded by idiots!" He took off his hat, twisting it about in his hands in frustration, staring at it as if it held all the answers. "Do I have to do everything myself?"

Draconian turned his body to fully face Seven, who still stood staring his hat, his hand resting casually on the hilt of his katana. "In my opinion, I'd say that's a yes, but I highly caution you not to."

Seven's face of frustration turned to that of curiosity as he heard this. "Hmm... interesting opinion." For a few seconds, he seemed to ponder over the hat in his hands.

Suddenly, Seven bent his knees and threw the hat, making into soar through the air at an incredible speed towards Draconian.

Normally, a switch from passive to aggressive at such a speed would leave very little time for a person to dodge the attack due to the surprise. Of course, Draconian wasn't exactly the kind of person to be caught by surprise, add to that his reflexes makes the instant it takes for the hat to get to him seem like ten seconds.

After passing by Draconian, who had twisted his upper body to the right so as to dodge the projectile, the hat slowly turned around in midair and came right back.

Again Draconian dodged it, bending his already twisted body ninety degrees to the right to let the hat go sailing over his head. Once it got back to its owner, Seven caught the hat in midair and spun around, bringing the hat back and throwing it once more so that it was now sideways.

Draconian, who had already straightened back up, bent his body back at the waist, just missing the hat as it traveled just inches above his body. For a second time, the hat slowly turned around in the air and sped towards Draconian's bent body.

With quickness born from years of training, Draconian twisted his body and placed his hands on the ground. His legs snapped around, following the twist of his body and smacking into the side of the hat as it came by, sending it reeling off to the side.

The hat ran right into a wall, the rim of it slicing right through the rock and getting itself stuck.

This made Draconian chuckle, and in no time he was running towards the unarmed Seven, his hand already gripping his katana.

He stopped as soon as he had started, however, when the hat zipped from the wall back into its owner's hand; and with a casual flick of his fingers, Seven sent the hat soaring right towards Draconian once more.

The move had actually caught Draconian slightly by surprise, leaving him little time to react. That didn't stop him, however, as he fell backwards, landing on his hands and bringing his legs up so that he was just barely above the ground.

Once more, the hat went sailing over Draconian's body. This time, however, he noticed something as it went by. Right behind the hat was what could only be a thin wire, reaching all the way back to Seven and, from what Draconian presumed, going up his sleeve.

Draconian kicked his legs out, bucking his body back up to stand on his feet. His hand shot out before the hat got back and took ahold of the wire, giving a small tug to off balance the hat and send it tumbling to the ground.

Seven frowned, giving an annoyed look at the fallen hat. "Huh, so you found that part out, did ya?"

In answer, Draconian gave a tug on the wire, causing Seven to stumble forward and fall on the ground.

With a grunt, Seven picked himself up, dusting off his suit as he did so. "A simple 'yes' would have sufficed." And with a jerk, he brought his right arm back, the wire in the sleeve easily visible under his flattened palm.

A small yelp escaped from Draconian's lips as the wire whizzed right back into the sleeve, cutting right through his palm in the process. He had no time for contemplating the pain, however, as the hat came right behind it.

He rolled to the side to dodge the hat, leaving it to fly right back into the hand of its owner, where it was immediately thrown back into the fray.

Draconian dodged to the right, letting the hat whiz by his shoulder. Instead of just going on and turning around like it normally did, however, Seven yanked his arm over, making the hat take a sharp turn towards Draconian's side.

In response, Draconian leapt up and did a back flip right over the hat, having it just go underneath his feet.

Seven pulled the hat back, but had it stop about six feet in front of him. He then grabbed onto the wire and began spinning the thing in a circle by his side like a giant pendulum.

Giving a shout, Seven ran forward, the spinning hat on a string by his side, the rim of the hat itself carving a small trench in the ground as it passed. He swung the thing like a bat, letting the whirling circle pass in front of him to carve anything in its way.

Draconian jumped back, just missing as the thing carved a trench just feet in front of him. Immediately he ducked as it came back the other way, now angled as Seven lifted it above his head and swung it diagonally down.

Once he had ran past the spinning circle before it got him, Draconian leaped forward and tried to drive his shoulder into Seven's chest. His attempt only hit empty air, however, as Seven leapt over Draconian's body, actually pushing off the back of his shoulders for leverage.

Once he was past Draconian, Seven flipped his body upside-down so that he was now staring at his opponent's back. The hat stopped its spinning as Seven shot it at Draconian's back, leading it into a head-on collision with his shoulder blades.

Sensing the attack, Draconian jumped up and back flipped over the hat, twisting around in midair as he did so and kicking out kicking Seven in the chest. This sent him right down to the ground, where he expertly caught himself with one hand and flipped back onto his own feet, bringing the hat back with him as he did so.

Before Seven could get the hat going again, Draconian landed back onto the ground and launched a fist towards his head.

The attack was easily dodged as Seven ducked, spinning his body with the leg out to try and trip Draconian much like he himself had done to Saturday earlier. Of course, it's almost always a stupid mistake to use someone else's own attack, which Seven found out as Draconian jumped over the leg and kicked him in the face.

Draconian landed on the ground a few feet away from Seven, who had turned the kick into a backwards roll, landing back in a crouch. He then spun around, swinging the wire around with him so that it went out wide.

On its course, the wire ran into the side of Draconian's neck, in which it swung around and wrapped itself around his throat. Before he could do anything to take it off, Seven had gotten back up and was now holding the wire in place, tugging on it to tighten the hold on Draconian's neck.

"You feel that?" Seven whispered into Draconian's ear. "Sooner or later this wire will cut right through your flesh, too bad for you it's going to happen before you choke to death."

Draconian tried tugging on the wire with his right hand, only to do nothing except slip around as the blood from his earlier cut spread itself around. For a while it looked as if he had truly lost as he struggled against the wire around his neck.

After a few seconds, though, Draconian gave a defiant shout and bent his body forward in a sharp jerk, sending Seven hurtling over his body.

Seven landed back on his feet, his back facing Draconian, and kicked backwards. The foot didn't make any sound as it went right through air, Draconian having dodged to the left to avoid it.

His arm took a firm hold of Seven's leg, and with a shout Draconian jumped up and kicked Seven in his shoulder blades with both feet, sending the man toppling down to the ground.

With a growl of frustration, Seven got back up on his knees and swung the wire around. This was easily dodged as draconian did a back flip over the wire, leaving it to go flying off to the side. He then leaped forward, aiming the bottom of his feet for Seven's back to try and knock him back down on the ground.

His feet only landed on ground, though, as Seven's body was somehow tugged towards the left. The hat had lodged itself into the side of a building after Draconian had dodged it, allowing Seven to go along the line towards the place.

As soon as he had gotten to the wall, Seven yanked on the wire, tugging the hat right out of the stone it was lodged in. Once out, Seven spun the hat above his hat and threw it up, making the hat once more lodge in the building, this time near the top.

The wire once more tightened as it moved back into Seven's sleeve, making it so that Seven could easily pull himself right up the wall. This allowed him to easily get to the rooftop. Once there, Seven ran along the edge of the roof, away from where his hat was lodged into the stone.

By this time, Draconian had started to head to Seven, who was now standing on the corner of the roof's edge, the wire now a good length.

With a shout of defiance, Seven launched himself from the rooftop, grasping onto the wire as he did so. Because of the length of the wire and position of the hat compared to where Seven was at the moment, instead of falling to the ground his body was now swinging along the wire as if it was a vine in the jungle.

Seven raised his legs up, the feet out, so that he'd kick anything in his way; and judging by the path of his flight, that something would be Draconian.

Draconian chuckled as he saw this pathetic attempt at attacking him. It would only take a few seconds for him to reach the aerial Seven, and that was definitely not enough time for Seven to realize his mistake.

During those few seconds of waiting, Draconian's feet had erupted in flames, but in his rushed flight Seven didn't notice them until it was too late.

"Dragon Wheel!"

Draconian turned to the side and gave a sharp twist of his body, bending at the waist and lifting his legs up to travel in an arc through the air. His feet went right over Seven's legs, crashing right into his chest and sending him falling right back down to the ground in a heap. The feet extinguished themselves right when they touched back on the ground, Draconian now standing upright once more.

Another growl escaped from Seven's lips as he once more moved to get up. Before getting all the way up, he gave a sudden jerk of his hand, dislodging the hat from the building and sending it flying back. He then gave a little swing of his arm, curving the path of the wire so it came around instead of just going straight.

This time the wire was able to actually get to Draconian before he could dodge, wrapping continually around his body. The hat traveled in circles around his body, continually getting closer as the length of the wire got shorter, like a shark circling its prey.

Seven stood back up, taking a firm grip of the wire and giving a grin. "Looks like you're stuck, and sooner or later my hat's gonna get close enough and cut you to pieces."

A bored look stuck itself on Draconian's face as he calmly stared at Seven, his eyes partially closed as if he had all the time in the world. He gave a small sigh and pushed against the wire.

Fire erupted along the length of both arms and immediately started to eat through the wire wrapped around Draconian. In no time, the wire was burned completely through and fell around Draconian's feet, the hat falling from the air along with it.

Seven's eyes widened in shock and anger, and soon his lips formed themselves into a twisted snarl. He started backing up from Draconian, who had extinguished the flames and was now reaching up to his scimitar with his right hand.

"If I were you I'd give up, from the looks of it you have nothing else to offer in terms of a challenge, and even if you did you'd lose anyway." His hand had taken ahold of the sword's handle and was beginning to slide it out.

Seven's snarl slowly turned into a sneer as he heard what Draconian said, and soon after he started chuckling. "Who ever said anything about me having nothing else to offer to this fight? I think it's time you say hello to my little friends."

He reached both hands into the opposite sides of his suit and pulled them back out. In each of his hands was a Tommy gun, the automatic weapons looking just as deadly as their cold black color.

The barrels blazed into fire, the cylinders holding the bullets on each spinning in an intense speed.

Draconian whipped his scimitar out of its sheath, immediately having flames cover its length as he started to spin it in front of him.

"Dragon Whirlwind!"

Bullets bounced off the flaming blade, making a constant ringing that sounded like hail hitting the roof of a building. The blurred fire from the spinning blade made a giant circle completely covering Draconian's body from sight.

A fireball blasted from the center of the flaming circle, going right down the middle of the Tommy guns' fire and smacking right into Seven's chest.

This had Seven stop firing his guns so he could beat out the flames, which were already starting to spread.

Taking the advantage presented to him, Draconian spun his body around, stopping the spinning of the scimitar as he did so and raising it up. He took hold of the scimitar's hilt with both hands, bringing it up and over his shoulder so that the back of the blade was lying parallel to his own back.

As he completed the spin, Draconian bent his knees and crouched down; the flame on the scimitar grew so that it looked like a giant fin extending from Draconian's back.

"Dragon Crush!"

The sword whipped down, crashing right into the ground and releasing a giant slash of fire. The ground between Draconian and Seven split into a crack as the flaming slash shot right for Seven.

It was almost too late when Seven noticed the attack, having just beaten out the last of the flames on his shirt. He tried to leap to the side to escape the blast, getting most of his body out of the way of the flames except for his left hand.

Flames ran right into the gun, the force of it cutting right through the metal as if it were butter; and cutting off Seven's fingers as if it was air. The slash of fire passed right by, leaving the metal and fingers to fall to the ground with some clinking and soft thuds, to smash right into the wall of one of the buildings, creating a giant crevice up its side.

Seven yelled out in pain, falling down to his knees and holding up his hand. Five stumps extended from his palm, the ends of each blackened and sealed by the flames.

Draconian stepped forward, the scimitar resting across his shoulders with the flames gently licking the back of his neck.

He may have been in intense pain, but Seven easily registered the person in front of him, the one who had cut off his fingers. The Tommy gun in his right hand rose up, the barrel once more blazing as Seven pulled the trigger.

Draconian leaped forward, jumping above the bullets and spinning his body around.

"Dragon Sweep!"

The scimitar swung from its position along his shoulders, curving down and across to follow the path of the spin, making contact with the gun and slicing it right in half.

His body continued the spin, the left arm bending itself and following the sword to smash its elbow right into the side of Seven's head, sending him crashing down to the ground.

Immediately following the fall, Draconian landed back on the ground in a crouch, slipping the scimitar back into its sheath as he did so. The hand automatically filled the empty space in its palm where the scimitar had been earlier by traveling down to the waist and grabbing onto the handle of the tanto.

He stood back up, taking a few steps towards the fallen Seven and sliding the tanto out of its sheath. As soon as he was at the fallen Seven, Draconian reached down and took a hold of the man's hair. Placing his knee between Seven's shoulder blade, Draconian gave a yank of the hair, bringing the man's head bending up and slightly back.

Seven gave a flinch as a cold sensation hit his neck, and with a panicked look down he saw the source to be the tanto's blade pressed against his throat.

"Now," Draconian said, "you're going to tell me everything that you know about Baroque Works right now, and you'll cooperate, otherwise I'm going to remove mister Addams apple."

Immediately Seven started to thrash around in protest, only to stop cold as Draconian pressed the blade harder against the throat, cutting just enough into the skin to draw some blood. A growl escaped Seven's mouth in response. "Why the hell do you want to know about Baroque Works? You don't seem like the person who'd care."

"Well, usually I'm not, but when I get attacked by a group like this twice I kind of start to get interested. Now pipe up, and I don't want to hear about any of that numbers and days crap, I already know that stuff."

Seven stared coldly at the blade against him, and giving a sigh he began to talk.

* * *

Draconian slammed Seven's face against the ground and stood up. He turned around and began to walk back towards the docks.

A groan escaped Seven's lips as he tried to push himself up with one arm. When he was supported by his knees, Seven raised his right hand up and wiped away the blood from his mouth.

Spit flew out of his mouth as he yelled at the top of his lungs at Draconian's back. "You're a stupid fool! You'll never win against him, no matter what you do! I am absolutely nothing compared to him, don't you understand that! Why do you even bother looking for the man when you know you'll lose?"

The small taps made from Draconian's steps stopped, the new, cold silence of the night clutching at everything like a blizzard.

"Because I made a promise to myself to beat my father, and that means constantly improving, and the only way to do that is to fight as strong opponents as I can. Even if I do lose, I'll just come right back and challenge my enemies until I beat them, because I won't stop fighting unless I'm unconscious."

For a few seconds, silence greeted his answer, only to be filled with Seven's laughter. "What does that matter how hard you work? Zero's not the type that's just going to spare you, when you lose to him you'll die, there's no coming back!"

Small chuckles emanated from Draconian as he started to walk away once more. "Who ever said I was going to lose to _him_?"

Seven's eyes widened as his face started to contort in fury, his teeth bearing themselves as a feral growl escaped his lips. He brought his right arm forward and pushed himself up, keeping his injured left hand close to his body.

Blood and spit flew from his mouth as his teeth gnashed in anger, even a tooth dislodged itself to be immediately shot out.

As soon as he was back on both feet, the injured left hand kept close to his chest, Seven immediately went to work digging through the inside of his suit. His arm shaking with anger, it took him quite a while to find what he was looking for and take it out of the inside.

In his right hand Seven now held a rose, the stem completely removed of all thorns. The blood red petals gleamed in the moonlight, beautifully shaped and delicate, yet somehow looking as deadly as a bloody sword.

He brought the rose up to his face, opening his mouth up slightly once it was near and gnashing his teeth onto one of the outside petals. With a small jerk, he ripped the petal completely off the flower, somehow releasing all the other petals in the process and making them fall off the stem like a group of delicate leaves.

His head now twisted all the way to the right, Seven gave another jerk in the opposite direction, releasing the petal still held in his mouth. Its delicate form was sent soaring through the air in the direction of Draconian, going at a speed faster than that of the hat previously.

The petal through right by Draconian; though not without leaving a mark as it cut right through the top of his shoulder as if it was paper.

Draconian grabbed at his shoulder in surprised shock and turned around to face his attacker.

Seven struck out at the floating petals, hitting them with his palm to send them all hurtling forward at Draconian in a manner like the first.

Now aware of the attack, Draconian jumped into the air and right over the leaves, which passed harmlessly underneath him to continue on and slice right into the ground. The tanto was brought back up, the giant tail of fire once more reappearing along its blade.

"Dragon Whip!"

The fire snaked through the air, easily catching the standing Seven and wrapping around his neck. Leaving the flames to hold Seven still, Draconian landed back on the ground. With a tug, he sent Seven hurtling forward, and right into Draconian's field of attack.

As soon as Seven was near enough, Draconian slipped the tanto back into its sheath, extinguishing the fire. This allowed him to flip over Seven's head, wrapping his left arm around his neck as he did so. Draconian landed in a low crouch, bending Seven's head back as he did so.

"Dragon Crossbow!"

His left foot shot out and hooked around Seven's right ankle, while his right arm grabbed onto the left leg, completely keeping him from moving. Finally, his right foot snapped out to push against Seven's back, making it so that his spine bent almost completely in half.

Seven yelled out in pain as he tried to struggle out of the hold, doing no good whatsoever as Draconian held his body completely still.

This went on for many moments, almost going a whole minute as Draconian calmly crouched in his position with the squirming, screaming Seven behind him.

After a little over a couple minutes, Draconian let go of all of Seven's body parts. The sudden effect of taking out all resistance to Seven's body had his spine snap forward, so that now he was leaning forward at a ninety degrees angle to his almost straight legs.

Following the release, Draconian swung his body to the left so that now he was facing Seven's right side. He jumped into the air, raising his left leg above Seven's back and placing his right near the ground. Flames erupted along the length of the legs as he shouted into the stillness of the night.

"Dragon Scissors!"

His left leg slammed down as his right snapped up, smashing into Seven's back and under his chin. The weight of the leg against his back sent his body straight down to the ground, while the one under his chin kept his head up.

Seven's head fell limply to the ground once Draconian removed his right leg from under his chin, the punishing vice having done its toll on the man's body.

For the second time, Draconian turned his back on Seven, taking his final stroll in the city towards the docks.

* * *

The ship's back lay pointing towards the receding island.

At the front of it stood Draconian, his eyes content on his tanto, which was working on the top of the dragon's head.

Draconian drew back, giving a sigh as a small smile of satisfaction spread on his face. He slipped the tanto back into its sheath as he surveyed his small work on the figure at the head of his ship.

Right between the two horns on the dragon's head was a small, curved hole; much like a small crater.

He reached into his right pocket, fishing out the Grand Compass he had finished working on. With an excited hand, he placed the globe into the small crater, fitting it in perfectly so that it wouldn't move.

The small arrow pointed ahead, towards the next destination in the Draconian's quest for perfection.

* * *

Finally, finished with another long chapter. Hopefully you liked this one, I personally did, I was thinking the fighting would be quick but, hey, I guess I just carry on with these things. Now, I'd like to apologize if there already was a Seven showed in the series, at the moment I haven't gone that far ahead so I wouldn't really know. If there is, please don't beat me up too much, I try my hardest to make these things good for you guys, because you deserve it. Now, onto reviews eh?

**Yachtzee**: Eh, I don't mind the long reviews, I actually prefer them, even if they are full of criticism. Also, as for the dragon thing, I guess my ideas (or at least for main characters) revolve around that stuff. Let's see... sorry for the paragraphs, I'm trying to space them out more, but I don't like doing just sentences, it feels as if I'm just doing them too short. As for the descriptions, sorry, but I just like doing descriptions, I feel it helps people get what's completely happening, it's just a thing of mine. Sorry about the sentences, there are some that I don't want too short, but there are also others that I find dividing into sentences wouldn't suit it, so some I have to actually keep long, but I'm trying to improve. Now, as for chapter length, try not to think of them as chapters, but more like sections of the whole story. Plus, just so you know, I think a lot of people take longer to get their chapters out than I do, and that's saying something considering how long mine are and the fact that nowadays I don't have much time do to school and other stuff I have to do. Well, I hope you review more often.

**Iwin Ulose**: Well, I believe I already reviewed your fight scene. Thanks for the compliment on my fight scenes, I feel honored for you to think that. Um... I have a question for you. I'm sorry if this sounds presumptuous, but do you know Hutchy? I don't mean know of him, but have you two talked or something? I mean, for some odd reason I just get the feeling that you two might know each other through fanfiction, you two just seem like that, plus I saw both of your names (and only yours) on a C2 staff, so I kind of presumed you two might talk or something. The reason I ask is that Hutchy hasn't reviewed my last chapter at all. I'm not trying to appear desperate, it's just that Hutchy is the only one who's actually stuck with me and reviewed every single one of my chapters, she's just one of those special reviewers, you know? I was just wondering if you knew any reason of this, I just really don't want to lose her reviews. Again, sorry if this is really presumptuous.

Well, that's that, I'll see you all in my next chapter.


	9. Cold Encounters

Cold Encounters

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

Draconian sat behind his desk, the pile of wanted papers in his hands. His feet were planted on the desk's top as he leaned comfortably back, rifling through the many papers.

The words of Mr. Seven still rang in his mind from the other day. It seemed that the "company" known as Baroque Works had actually been broken up a few months ago. The unknown leader of the group, Mr. Zero, along with all of his top members, had been beaten pretty badly by a group called the Straw Hat Crew.

Now, this little fact had perked up Draconian's interest quite a bit. This little person known as "Straw Hat" Luffy was making a nice name for himself pretty fast. Draconian just couldn't wait until he could catch up to this strong adversary.

Another interesting fact came up during Draconian's and Seven's little "discussion." After Luffy's crew had taken down Baroque Works, it had been revealed that the leader was in fact on of the seven Shichibukai. Or at least, he _was _one of the Shichibukai; after hearing about what he had done, the World Government had fired him from his position and arrested him.

A few weeks after getting captured, however, Crocodile had escaped from the marines, going back out to where he had originally headed up Baroque Works, an island named Alabasta.

From there, he had brought Baroque Works up once more, except that this time he could barely get enough people to hold everything together. From what Seven had told him, it seemed that the company was barely holding up nowadays. They didn't have as many members as before, and a lot of the stronger members were taken out completely in the battle with the Straw Hat pirates.

All this left Draconian with the urge to go to the island where Croc was hiding out and take him down. It would definitely be a nice challenge, seeing as the man was formerly a member of the Shichibukai.

And now Draconian sat, searching through his pile of papers in hope of finding a certain picture.

He found the wanted after about a minute of searching. The paper was brown and looked very old, it seemed as if it was about to fall apart. This was expected, though, as it was printed before the man had become one of the seven.

Beneath the picture was printed the name CROCODILE, which stood above a bounty of 81,000,000 beli.

Draconian shook his head roughly and looked at the paper again. After a few seconds of looking at the numbers, he was sure. It said eighty one million, definitely a nice bounty. Of course, now that he thought of it, the man would need a high bounty to become one of the seven.

The picture showed a man with black hair, slicked back, and a large square face. A scar ran horizontally from one cheek to the other, running right over his nose. His face seemed set in a small, relaxed smile, a cigar poking out of his mouth.

As Draconian stared over the picture, he couldn't help but noticing the man's calm expression. It sent shivers up his spine, this man was dangerous, and from what Draconian could tell, very cold in what he did. For him, this only meant one simple thing to Draconian.

This man, Crocodile, was a worthy challenge.

So, placing the rest of the papers down, Draconian got out of his chair and walked around his desk, pinning the paper next to his picture of Luffy.

Walking back to behind his desk, Draconian took notice once more of the giant book which he had taken from Misty Peak. From the title, he'd thought it would produce some kind of map of the whole, or at least a good section of, the Grand Line. Sadly, though, it was just filled with maps of different islands.

Draconian picked the book up and flipped through, staring at the many pictures. Halfway through, though, the pictures stopped, leaving only blank pages.

Not what he had hoped for, but at least it was something, even if it wasn't much.

Draconian plopped back down on his chair, staring at the pages as if he expected something to just appear. He sat like that for a few minutes, until a small thought popped into his head, growing quickly to something big.

He didn't have a log book yet.

Now that the idea was clear in his mind, he started to roll it around, liking it more and more every second. It would be nice to have something like it, just for fun, maybe even to pass on to a child one day. Also, if he came upon a new island, he could just draw it into the book to add some more knowledge; being a pretty good navigator had given him a pretty good skill at drawing maps, even if it wasn't the skill of an expert.

So, giving a chuckle, Draconian turned to the first blank page and took up one of his nearby quills, dipping it into a newly opened bottle of ink and lowering it down to the paper.

* * *

Draconian leaned against the back of the dragon head, his eyes concentrating on the sea in front of him.

The last few days had been pretty hectic, weather wise. The temperature had been on the fritz, so to say, resulting in very annoying weather. Quite a few times Draconian was faced with big waves or storms, which he tried his best to avoid.

Thankfully, he was able to skirt the edges of the storms and dodge the waves with ease... well, maybe not ease, but enough skill that he could survive without any serious damage.

Luckily, the weather had calmed down the day before, the temperature even staying steady, although very cold. He had heard about this during his previous travels; it seemed that each island in the Grand Line had a different "season" to it, even being different in time zones for some. And judging by the temperature, the island he was coming up to was going to be a winter one.

At the moment, Draconian was wearing a black leather trench coat, the length of it going down to a little over a foot below his knees. The thing was buttoned up, leaving everything above his waist to be covered and the rest of the coat to casually fall around his legs.

The reason for this wasn't really to protect him from the cold, seeing as the trench coat itself didn't have any inside lining. Instead, Draconian had radiated heat from his body and was using the coat to keep it constricted instead of just floating about everywhere.

Upon putting it on, Draconian had to take the scimitar off his back so the thing would fit. Afterwards, he put it back on, which felt a little uncomfortable at the moment.

With all that taken care of, Draconian now stood at the front of the ship. He didn't really suspect any odd weather, but there was still the chance; besides, it was the Grand Line.

The other reason for being out in front of the boat was so he could spot the island. Seeing as the weather had evened out the day before, there was a good chance that the island would come in view in a little bit.

And just as if it had heard his thoughts, a small thing of solid white appeared on the horizon. Of course, Draconian wasn't able to make out any features seeing as it was so far away, the only thing that the island revealed about itself was the white, which proved his theory of it being a winter island.

With a sigh of satisfaction, Draconian stood up strait and stretched, his body rewarding him with some good cracks from leaning against the ship for so long. Once he finished stretching, Draconian hopped up onto the dragon head, his leg dangling over the side as he comfortably waited to get to his next destination.

While he waited, Draconian picked up the Lock Post lodged into the top of the head and placed it into the inside pocket of his trench coat. He would obviously need to bring it onto the island so that it would pick up on the magnetic force.

After placing the Post into his coat, he dug around some more in his pockets and took out his pair of sunglasses, slipping them on over his distinguishing eyes. No need to take the chance of causing an unnecessary stir.

A while of waiting upon the dragon head revealed a little more shape to the island in which Draconian was coming to. The first thing he could make out was three lone shapes, too far away at first to make out. After a good while of waiting, though, they could be made out into three giant cylindrical shapes made out of what was most likely ice. At this moment, Draconian was close enough to the island to make out the snow covering the island and guess at the land's size. Taking that in mind, each cylinder of ice was as tall as a mountain.

Now, at first Draconian's eyes were drawn to the towers, immediately recognizing something like them in the book he picked up at Misty Peak. If he was correct, this was an island called Drum. After a while though, after continually getting closer to the island, his eyes were drawn away from the towers towards the actual snow. At first he hadn't noticed much, but something had caught his eye and once he was close enough he was able to make out what it was.

Much of the snow was pink.

The edges of the island were white with snow, but the farther you got into the island the pinker it got. Of course, there was still white scattered around the pink, but it was still an odd sight to behold.

All the pinkness was kind of hypnotizing, the color mixing with the white boring into Draconian's brain, drawing his thoughts away from the island as he stared into the unusual snow.

It seemed like he could look in the snow forever, pondering the mysteries of how it could turn this color, until an explosion jerked him out of his reverie. He tore his gaze away from the snow and looked around at the island in front of him. The snow had distracted him so much that he hadn't realized how close he had come to the island. By now, it'd only take a few minutes to actually reach the shore.

Smoke issued up somewhere to the left of Draconian's position. At the moment, the place was too far away to make out any clear details, but it from what he could see it looked like there was some kind of ship near the shore.

Another explosion ripped through the air after a small flash from the ship, obviously as a result of a cannon. The smoke was issuing from the land right next to where the ship was docked.

A little voice in the back of Draconian's mind told him that it wouldn't be too good an idea to move his ship over there. That voice was a little something that Draconian called common sense. So, heeding its advice, Draconian got off the dragon head and turned his ship to the right in search for a good place to dock.

After a while of sailing he found an ideal spot in a little inlet leading into the island, much like the one in Misty Peak. It only took him a few minutes to dock the ship, a result of over a years worth of sailing experience, and soon he was off and headed towards the area where the explosions were.

As he walked towards where he guessed there was a battle, Draconian scanned the land to see if there was any sign of habitation. Now and then he would spot the outskirts of a village, a stone wall or maybe some small houses lined up. But no matter how hard he looked he couldn't see any actual people, the same would probably be true even if he actually walked right into the villages.

His steps were calm, casual, as if he were taking a stroll along a beach. Heck, in a way, he was taking a stroll along the beach; this island probably had no sand at all. With the sea to his left, the only reason that this wasn't a hundred percent relaxing was the fact that he was heading towards explosions.

So instead it was only about, say, ninety-seven percent relaxing.

At moments like these, other people would probably be running right towards the fight in worry; either that or running in the other direction. Of course, Draconian didn't really see what was up ahead as something to worry about. Whatever it was, he'd probably get through it just fine. Besides, there wasn't really a reason for him to care anyways, this wasn't a problem concerning him, it was most likely something related to the islanders.

In other words, it wasn't his problem, so there was no reason for him to worry at all or even give a shit.

With these feelings and thoughts in tact, he didn't even flinch after walking over another snow covered hill to see what was going on.

Docked near the shore was the oddest ship Draconian had seen. It was made completely out of metal and looked like a big dome, except for a flat area where people operated the ship. It wasn't a pirate ship, if it was then there'd be a skull and crossbones flying on top. People in padded coats, mittens, and warm hats poured over the railing at the ships edge, while many others stayed at the railing with rifles.

On the ground there was a crowd of people just as big, armed with guns, pitchforks, and many other items. Each person was unique in their look, not as ordered as the ones on the ship, obviously the villagers. They fought back the tides of crewmen with vigor, holding them at the small area of snow.

Wounded bodies littered much of the field, their comrades fighting right on top of them. The villagers fought much harder than the crewmen, taking many down on the ground. However, the crewmen on the railing constantly rained bullets on the battlefield, taking down many a person. This resulted in a standstill.

Draconian surveyed the battle field a little more closely. There didn't seem to be anyone standing out in the crewmen, meaning the captain was standing back. The villagers, however, had a clear champion.

At the head of the procession, standing right where the two groups collided, was a huge man scattering anyone who got close. His body was thick and tall, his biceps wide. Draconian couldn't see his legs, but he was sure they'd be strong. He wore a green shirt with yellow bands completely covering his arms.

But that wasn't why Draconian was interested in him.

Every square inch of skin showing from the clothes he wore was completely covered in black fur. His head was big, stretched a little out in front like a snout. Two short horns stuck out of the sides of his head, curling a little upwards. In other words, he looked like a buffalo standing on two legs.

When Shanks had told Draconian about the Devil Fruit, he hadn't just showed him what one looked like. He had also talked about all the different classes. Draconian himself had an elemental class, or something like that; he was supposed to be able to turn his body into flames so that physical attacks wouldn't do anything, but for some reason he couldn't. This man, however, looked like one of the zoan class; they can turn their bodies into that of an animal. They even have a form between human and animal, which is what this man was obviously in at the moment.

Draconian had definitely stumbled into something interesting, and if the captain of the vessel was a good challenge, then that meant he'd also come into some good training.

With the attitude of someone walking through a park, Draconian jumped down the hill and walked towards the two battling forces.

The battle raged all around him, but Draconian paid it about as much tribute as he would leaves blowing in the wind. Of course, a few times he'd knock one of the crewmen out when they tried to attack him, but all he really needed to accomplish that was an absentminded punch or kick.

In no time he reached the man heading the townspeople, casually standing beside him as if they were in a casual conversation. AS he stood beside him, he was able to see the weapon he was using. It was an odd looking thing; the handle looked like an upside down T, the blade shaped like a broad paddle with a curved end.

Draconian reached up and tapped him on the shoulder, in which he responded with a commanding bark. "What's the status with the rest of the villagers?"

"No idea, maybe you should ask one of the townspeople." Draconian responded back. "Hey, you guys need any help?"

The buffalo man gave a sidelong glance at Draconian, immediately turning back once he had gotten a good look. "Never seen you before, you from a different town or something?"

"Nope, just docked. I saw the battle and thought you guys might want some assistance."

"Sure, we can use all the help we can get, you any good?"

As if on cue, one of the crewmembers took a stab at Draconian with a bayonet. Not even glancing at him, Draconian grabbed the bayonet out of mid air with his left hand. He then yanked it out of his hands and flipped it around, stabbing it back down into the man's knee. As the man fell down to his knees, screaming in pain, Draconian spun around and delivered a hard kick to his head, dropping him completely down.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"Good, I need some help holding the line here, too many people are getting past in my opinion."

"Hmm," Draconian rubbed his chin in thought, at the same time kicking a guy trying to sneak past. "One thing I need to know first. Where's the captain of this ship?"

A growl escaped the man's lips. "That's no captain; he used to be the king of this island but was overruled. He keeps trying to take it over, but so far hasn't been successful. He's up on the ship, away from the danger like a coward."

"Thought so. Now here's my idea, you and the rest of the villagers stay down here, okay? I'll go up there and get this thing resolved in, say, a few minutes, okay?"

Deep chuckling escaped from the man's mouth. "Sure, I'd like to see you try."

"Glad we agree. Now, what does old kingy look like?"

If the man-beast could've cocked an eyebrow, he would have, but instead settled for giving Draconian an odd sidelong glance. "All you need to know is that he's the fattest person on the ship, he'll be easy to spot."

Draconian gave a small nod and turned to face the ship. "Thanks for the info; I'll see you in a few minutes at the most." He started to turn to face the ship, but looked back. "Um, if I were you I'd duck."

This time he was actually able to cock an eyebrow as he turned his head to face Draconian. "Huh?"

Instead of answering, Draconian's hand snapped out with lightning quick speed. A small whistling whipped through the air, immediately followed by a small thud as Draconian closed his fingers around an arrow; the tip was just an inch away from the man's face.

"Next time I give you some advice, it'd be best if you took it." With that, he squeezed his hand, snapping the arrow in half, and turned once more towards the ship.

He reached up and slipped the sunglasses off, putting them into his inside jacket pocket. Once that was done, his right hand once more reached up and took a hold of the scimitar's handle. It slowly slid out of it's sheath as Draconian bent his knees, putting his left foot forward and his left hand forward, palm out. He took a deep, calming breath as he raised the scimitar above his head, blade pointing towards the crowd as he readied his fighting stance.

With a wild shout, Draconian dove into the mass of rushing bodies. The scimitar flashed in every direction, scattering bodies with each sweep. It took a few seconds for the crowd to take notice of him, which only meant that they lost even more people to the dangerous blade.

As soon as they took notice of him, most of the crowd immediately turned to the black figure of doom striding through their ranks. They tried to attack him, pressing their ranks over his lean body, only to have their attacks dodged by Draconian's speedy and aerobic moves; and then getting blown back from the scimitar's swift strikes or Draconian's own feet and fist.

To someone standing a good distance away, it would look as if there was a train or something scattering bodies as it drove forward. That was how fast Draconian was heading through the crowd toward the ship. It had only taken a quarter of a minute to make it halfway through, not a single scratch even grazing his trench coat.

In less than a minute, he had made it to the shore of the island, the metal plating of the ship just feet in front of him. It would be difficult for him to get up there with everyone crowding around him; so, taking his sword, he flipped the blade upside down. After grasping the handle with both hands, he plunged the cool metal into the ground.

Immediately, a dome of fire erupted from the blade, smashing into the people around Draconian and sending them flying. This left Draconian with a charred clearing a good twenty five feet wide.

Fire erupted from his feet as he pushed off from the ground, launching him straight up. He landed easily on the railing of the ship, left hand holding onto the metal bar for support as his right swept the sword towards the nearest crewmen.

His eyes quickly searched the ship, after a second finding the person that the buffalo man had mentioned. He was definitely a wide figure, probably about as wide as he was tall, although that wasn't saying _too _much since he was a little shorter than the average person. His whole body was covered in what looked like strips of metal armor, but they looked like they were pretty thin, so getting through them wouldn't be a problem. A cape made out of polar bear fur adorned him, the polar bear's head closing over the top of the man's own. Purple hair stuck out from under the bear's mouth. And as for the man's own mouth, it looked as if it was made completely out of metal, starting from under his nose and proceeding down to a cylindrical chin, the only thing not metal between the two points being his teeth.

Once more fire erupted from Draconian's feet as he jumped forward, launching him over the heads of everyone on the ship. His body went into a blurring spin, the scimitar held straight out.

After getting past everyone on the ship, his body fell down, aiming right towards the former king. The scimitar led the way, angling towards the man's head with the added momentum of the spin. "Dragon Sweep!"

The man's mouth opened wide, bigger than it should have. The top and bottom stretched from above his head to the top of his stomach. The big gaping hole could have probably swallowed a person hole if they went head first.

Before Draconian could finish the attack, the giant teeth clamped onto his scimitar, completely stopping him in his tracks. It was hard for Draconian to tell what seemed weirder, the fact that his attack was stopped like it was or the fact that the man's mouth had just turned into one of those wind-up teeth things. There was pretty much only one thing that could summarize his thoughts.

"What the hell?"

A growl escaped the man's lips, soon followed by a jerk of the head as he tried to snap the blade in half.

Instead of dwelling on the man's odd abilities, Draconian let his fighting instinct take over his body and mind. He pushed off the ground, moving with the man's mouth so as to keep his blade whole. Soon he found himself right above the man as he tried to bend his head completely backwards.

Draconian tightened his grip on the handle, letting the fire inside him flow out onto the blade. Once it completely covered the blade, Draconian increased the amount of fire, moving it into the man's mouth.

The man let out a strangled shout and let go of the blade. As soon as the scimitar slipped out, Draconian brought his foot back and lit it in flames. "Dragon Sledgehammer!"

He brought the foot down and slammed it against the side of the man's head, sending him flying across the deck of the ship and launching Draconian back to land on both feet.

Before Draconian could do anything else, two men stepped between him and the former king. One of them wore warm orange clothes, his hair was puffed up into a black afro and a beard ran along his chin, small balls of hair that looked just like the afro lining it. On his hands were what looked at first to be black boxing gloves, but on closer inspection revealed themselves to be just two balls of the same afro-like hair.

The other man was even weirder than the first. He was decked out in clothes that a jester would wear, the top completely covering his head so that only the circle of his face showed. His face was the stupidest thing Draconian had ever seen, the mouth actually shaped like a big squiggle. In one hand was a bow, the quarrel of arrows on his back.

"How dare you hurt King Wapol!" The jester shouted out in a high-pitched, whining voice.

"Yeah man, you don't just mess with the king like that, we'll have to teach you a lesson." The odd afro man put up his hands in a fighting stance.

Draconian cocked an eyebrow and gave a chuckle. "King? From what I've heard, you aint on the throne anymore."

The former king, Wapol, pushed himself up. "Such insolence, I shall always remain the king of Drum, no mater what anybody says."

"Hmm," Draconian gave a spin of the scimitar and slipped it back into the sheath. "Just curious, how many times have you gotten your ass kicked on this island? No need to answer, I just want to inform you that you'll be adding another number to your list."

Wapol's eyes widened in anger. "How dare you show such defiance to a king! Chess, Marimo, kill this man now!"

"Yes sire!" The jester, most likely Chess considering the pattern of his clothes, reached behind him and grabbed an arrow. As he set it against the string of the bow, the tip lit up in flames. Pulling back the string, he released the thing, sending it soaring for Draconian's heart.

Letting out a bored sigh, Draconian casually raised his right hand. With a small flick of his finger, he sent a small wisp of flame, barely even noticeable, in the direction of the oncoming arrow.

As soon as the wisp touched the fire on the arrow's tip, the flames spread to encompass the whole shaft. The arrow tipped down, heading straight for the ground like a small comet.

With a small clatter, the arrow landed on the deck of the ship, the wooden shaft just a pile of ashes. The arrow head, the flames dying out on it, skidded to just an inch away from Draconian's foot.

Draconian gave a mocking grin. "Ahh, and you were so close too."

The squiggly mouth set itself into what Draconian hoped was a growl, because if it wasn't... well let's just say he didn't find those kinds of thoughts comfortable.

Chess reached behind himself once more and pulled out two arrows, plucking them both on the bow and drawing back.

Draconian held back a small chuckle as he looked at this man's pathetic attempts at attack and distraction. He didn't have his eyes totally on the odd man, he had noticed the other guy's, Marimo, movements.

In an instant, he bent completely backwards so that his spine was parallel to the ground. Two puffy black balls sailed right over his body, passing easily a foot over his face.

As he righted himself back up, Marimo had refilled the two balls of hair on his hands. By this time, the flames on Chess' arrows had come up. Both men launched their two projectiles at the same time, putting them on a collision course.

Each arrow sank into one of the balls of hair, creating two flaming orbs heading Draconian's way.

A cock of the eyebrow was all that Draconian could express for this event. "What, you guys haven't figured it out yet? Oh well, guess I'll have to teach you this the harder way." And, raising both hands, Draconian pointed a finger at each orb and let out two more small wisps of flame.

Once the wisp touched the orbs, the fire grew so that each ball was almost as tall as a person. The balls split up to go to either side of Draconian's body, doing a loop-de-loop to head right back where they came from, their speed doubled.

The men weren't fast enough, so the flaming orbs smashed right into them, sending them flying back to land at the feet of Wapol.

For the second time, Wapol opened his mouth wide. The teeth closed over the bodies of Chess and Marimo, pulling them into the wide mouth. Interestingly enough, they didn't really seem to struggle that much, only giving the odd groans of complaint and "not again."

For one of the few times in his life, Draconian's jaw dropped as he witnessed the event before him. "Oh... my... god."

After a good while of struggling, Wapol was finally able to swallow the two men, sending them down to his stomach.

The look of shock on Draconian's face soon changed to disgust. "What the hell did you just do?"

A deep chuckle emanated from the man's mouth. "Oh, don't worry, you'll see soon enough." After a few seconds, he opened his mouth up once more.

From the gaping hole of his mouth flew out the oddest thing Draconian had seen. It looked as if the two men had been combined. The body was wide and thick, two arms sticking out of each side. It was decked out in what looked like a stretched out version of Chess' clothes. There were two circles of faces, the one on top being that of Mario's, while the one just below being Chess'.

Oddly, the body wasn't covered in saliva.

"Behold, the power of the Baku Baku factory!" Wapol let out a laugh as he gestured at his new "recruit."

Seemingly out of nowhere, the giant figure took out four axes, one for each hand. "Now," both heads said at once, "witness our awesome skill."

The axes swung in a series of movements, ending with each axe swinging outward. The strength of these moves created a wave through the air, heading right towards Draconian and cutting right through the deck of the ship as it passed.

Draconian blew back the left side of his coat, crouching down as he did so and grabbing the handle of the katana with his right hand. Fire already covered his hand as he slipped a little bit of the blade out of its sheath. "Dragon..."

All the while, the wave had passed by most of the deck, leaving a long crack in its wake.

"Slash!"

The sword struck forward, flaming blade crossing paths with the deadly wave. The air exploded in a wind of force on contact, the strike completely destroying the air wave and scattering it like wind scatters leaves.

As soon as all remains of the wave had faded, Draconian started forward in a run. He bent down a little and picked up the arrow head with the middle and index finger from his left hand. Fire immediately erupted along it once the two fingers closed around it.

He drew the arrow head back a little and flung it forward, sending the flaming projectile back to its owner. Before the two could comprehend what he was doing, the flaming arrow head had sank into their right knee, sending them down in a howl of pain.

Draconian already had the scimitar back out and in his left hand, continuing the headlong rush towards his fallen adversary. Both swords came up from his sides as he shouted, "Blades of the Dragon Brethren!"

The two could barely get their axes back up in response, the sudden pain slowing their reflexes against the quick attack. It only made it all the easier for Draconian to smack the pathetic defense aside and strike at their body.

The flaming blades struck in a blur, going every which direction and striking the body in more places than could count. In only a couple seconds, Draconian had run past the two men as if they were just a wall of air, leaving behind a fallen and bloody body.

"You're next, fat boy." He moved the swords so that they crossed horizontally over his chest, the blades sticking out at opposite sides.

Wapol raised his arm in defense, which no longer resembled an actual arm but... a _cannon_?

Draconian couldn't stop now, he had too much momentum and was already in his attack. The only thing he could do now was finish and hope he could withstand the attack.

He was within a foot of the cannon when it fired, creating a giant cloud of smoke as it did and completely covering Draconian and Wapol from sight.

For a couple seconds there was silence, until it was suddenly interrupted by Draconian's shout.

"Dragon Wings!"

From the far opposite side of the cloud erupted Draconian's body, flaming swords now uncrossed and raised to their respective sides. He was down on his left knee, his body covered in smoke and definitely looking beaten up.

"Note to self," he said, "cannons hurt."

Deep laughing emitted from the now dispersing cloud of smoke, revealing Wapol's shaking body. He turned around to face the beaten up Draconian. "Surprised? That's the power of the Baku Baku Fruit. I can eat anything, and anything I eat I can turn into. So, do you want to give up, whoever you are?"

For a few seconds, Draconian just sat there, gathering his breath. At first, the chuckling came out raspy, slowly gathering strength until it became a small laugh. Casually, he turned his head to look back at the former king, his eyebrow cocked and a grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. "Two thing. One, the name's Dragon, got it? And two, don't be so damn cocky, I'd look down if I were you."

A stupid grin stretched across Wapol's face as he started to laugh once more. The grin, however, completely vanished as he looked down, seeing the line of blood going straight across his chest.

With a speed suggesting he didn't have any injuries at all, Draconian leapt right back up to his feet. He ran straight towards the distracted Wapol, jumping as soon as soon as he was close enough and setting his feet aflame. "Dragon Comet!"

Keeping his body completely straight, Draconian did a front flip through the air, twisting his body to add more momentum, and slammed both feet into Wapol's face. The impact sent him flying back, landing with a big thud on the deck.

Draconian landed in a crouch, bringing the scimitar up to his shoulder and intensifying the flames. "Dragon..."

Before he could even get out the next word, Wapol sat straight up. Various guns appeared along his shoulders, arms, and chest. They all let fire at the same time, sending a destructive wave of bullets in Draconian's direction.

With reflexes befitting a startled deer, Draconian jumped to the side. He frantically switched the position of his scimitar, putting it out in front of him and spinning the blade. "Whirlwind!"

His original lunge dodged a little over half of the bullets, with the spinning blade taking out any more that came close. The fire grew to Draconian's own height, completely blocking him from view and allowing not a single other bullet past.

After a short while of this, the bullet rain stopped, allowing Draconian to lower his defense. Not only had Wapol stopped firing, but Draconian was now facing his wide back as he turned tail and ran towards the shore.

"Hey!" Draconian shouted, "Get your fat ass back here!" He tried to run after him, only to be stopped in his tracks as the remaining crewmen stood between him and their escaping "king." Instead of getting angry, Draconian just surveyed the crowd calmly. "If I were you, I'd get out of the way, otherwise I'll have to make you."

Not a single one of them budged, instead raising guns and other weapons. This caused Draconian to sigh in exasperation. "Okay, I warned you." He reversed his grip on the swords and raised them up. He then rushed forward, reversed blades back, flames growing bigger by the second. "Dragon Run!"

As he hit the crowd, Draconian pushed the blades forward, handles frontward to act as a wedge for the people right in front of him. The swords cut right through everyone at his side or pushed by the handles, clearing a path for him to easily get through.

In seconds he got through the crowd, stepping right up on the rail and jumping back down to the snowy shore. As he went through the air, he noticed Wapol's wide body running to the left.

Once landing on the ground, Draconian took off in the direction Wapol had taken. Instead of forcing his way through the crowd, Draconian would just jump right over anyone in his way, sometimes using their heads as stepping stones.

He wasn't the only one following Wapol. A few seconds after leaving the crowd, the edge of the crowd exploded as a big group of the crewmen were thrown through the air. Out of the mass ran the buffalo man, immediately turning right into his full buffalo form and rushing in the same direction as Draconian.

In no time, the man had caught up with Draconian, forcing him to run all out just to stick close to him. He turned his head, speaking through the buffalo's lips. "Stay back, Wapol's mine and nobody's taking him away from me."

"Well," Draconian responded back, "sorry to burst your bubble, but he's mine, I started the fight with him and I'm going to finish it. Besides, I always get the people who run away from me."

The man snorted and turned his head back to the run. "Fine, if you can get to him before me, then you can have him." And with that, he sped up his feet and started to edge farther than Draconian.

"Fine then," Draconian muttered, "if you want it that way." He slipped his swords back into their respective sheaths and jumped forward. Giving a boost of fire with the jump, he sailed over the man's body and landed on the top of his hand.

Immediately, the man shouted in annoyance and tried to shake him off. "Get off of me! I told you, Wapol's mine, I've waited too long!"

Draconian took a firm hold of the horns and wrapped his legs around the side of the neck to get a firm hold. "Oh, stop struggling, I just need a ride." In response, he shook his head even fiercer, almost pushing Draconian off a few times.

This time it was Draconian's turn to shout in annoyance. "Fine!" He slipped his right leg out from it's hold on the neck and raised it above his head and lighting it in fire. "If you're not going to be cooperative, then I'm just going to have to make you! Dragon Meteor!"

The foot came down and smashed against the man's forehead, making his legs buckle in pain and sending him crashing down to the snow. Draconian jumped off before the body landed, hitting the snow in an all out run and leaving the man behind to struggle to get up.

Fire once more erupted from his feet, giving his run an extra oomph and turning his steps into bounds. It took him a few seconds, but he was finally able to see Wapol's wide back. "Man, he's quick for a fat guy."

At first, he thought that he'd have to chase him for a while more before catching up to him. Those thoughts erased themselves from his mind after he saw the icy ground before Wapol.

He had chased the man up to a ledge made completely out of ice and, from what he could guess, leading all the way down to the sea. It stuck out far above the sea, a giant wedge of crystal extending from the island.

Standing at the foot of the ledge was Wapol, who immediately saw that he couldn't turn around and run in another direction before Draconian got to him. This only meant that he had to face him head on, a fact that Draconian was much pleased with.

So, seeing only one option, Wapol spun around and raised both arms. Each one turned itself into a cannon and let out an explosive blast, smoke coming out of them like two giant snakes.

Draconian leapt above the blast with a blast of flame from his feet. His body started to spin as he did a small flip, adding momentum as his leap took him all the way to Wapol himself. "Dragon Comet!"

This time, the feet slammed into the man's chest, once more pushing him down to the ground and skidding a little across the ice. He got back up quickly as Draconian landed on the ground, guns once more appearing all over his body and firing.

Again, Draconian vaulted into the air, taking the high road to avoid the attack. As the guns turned themselves upwards, he tucked his legs up and moved the scimitar underneath, spinning it to protect from the bullets. With this protection, he safely moved over to Wapol, his body falling from above towards the top of his head.

The spinning blade missed by about a foot as Wapol stepped back. His katana, however, came in fast as a snake to strike at the man's side. A clang rang through the air as steel hit steel, the blade of a sword sticking out Wapol's arm to intercept the katana. A grin spread over the man's face as he brought the guns to bear, even adding a few more to his arsenal.

Oh, if only he remembered the scimitar.

"Dragon Star!" Draconian snapped the scimitar up, sweeping five times with the flaming sword to carve a star into the man's body. The small second of shock and pain was all that Draconian needed to jump a third time into the air.

The guns shot just as his feet got above Wapol's head. As he came down the other side, Draconian wrapped his legs around the back of Wapol's neck, fire erupting along their lengths. "Dragon Whirlybird!"

He leaned forward, twisting his body around as he did so. The fire grew along both of their bodies, spinning around in a mini vortex along with Draconian's twisting body. Draconian pulled Wapol along with him, raising his heavy body up into the air. As Draconian rolled into a landing, he gave one strong pull, twisting his legs back straight as he did so and bringing Wapol's spinning body down hard.

As Wapol started to shakily get back up, Draconian jumped back up and into a crouch, back towards Wapol. "Dragon Kick!"

His foot snapped out and slammed into Wapol's chest, sending him flying across the ice to stop about ten feet from the edge.

With another burst of fire, he shot up into the air, heading right towards the cornered man. He flipped once, bringing his right foot up after completing and increasing the flames. "Dragon Meteor!"

He slammed his foot down just as Wapol ran underneath him, missing the fat man and instead hitting the ice. The force of the blow created a crack that ran from one side of the ice to the other. Draconian frantically backed away as the tip of the cliff fell off.

He turned around quickly, bringing his swords up in a defensive position. Wapol was standing quite a ways back, both arms turned into a cannon and a mischievous grin on his face as he pointed them at the ground.

Before Draconian could do anything, both cannons fired, creating a huge cloud of smoke as the projectiles slammed into the ice. Immediately upon impact, the ice crumbled from beneath Draconian's feet, too fast for him to jump back onto solid land.

Wapol threw back his head and laughed as he saw Draconian's head bob below the smoke. As he laughed, the impenetrable smoke drifted up and pretty much obscured the air right in front of the cliff. He didn't pay any attention to this, just continued on laughing at dropping the stupid kid down to the icy waters.

Only to stop cold as the smoke cleared.

Standing right in front of the broken cliff was Draconian, his arms crossed in annoyance to match the expression on his face. Fire blasted from the bottom of his feet, keeping him afloat in midair. He gave a small roll of his eyes and raised one of his eyebrows, giving Wapol a look that would usually be accompanied with a sneer. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

His answer was an angry growl as Wapol raised both cannons, aiming at the floating Draconian. Before he could fire, Draconian turned to the right and swung his body up, keeping his legs tightly together and completely straight. "Dragon Wheel!"

The cannon blast went right underneath Draconian as his body turned completely upside-down. His legs finished the swing, both coming right down on Wapol's forehead. That wasn't the last of the pain, however, as the swords followed the feet, both slicing from his shoulder to the halfway down his leg.

Draconian abruptly stopped the swing as his body was once more standing on both feet. He reversed the direction of his swords path, bringing them right back up to slash the right side of Wapol's body, making parallel lines to the previous slash.

Before he could do anything else, multiple guns appeared once more along Wapol's body, letting loose with another barrage. He turned his feet to the side and blasted off to the left, slipping his blades back into their sheaths as he did so.

The fire emanating from his feet suddenly went out, dropping him sharply below, his body obscured from view by the edge of the cliff.

Wapol stepped closer to the edge of the cliff and looked straight down, not seeing a single sign of him. Unbeknownst to him, Draconian had relit the flames on his feet and blasted underneath the shelf of ice.

For almost a minute, Wapol just stood over at the cliff's edge looking for any signs of the annoying teen. His nervousness grew every second, not knowing when he would strike. But after so long, he just straightened his body back up, not seeing a single hint of him and reasoning that he probably just fell into the sea.

That was when he struck.

Draconian shot up to Wapol's left, completely jolting shock right through the small man's body. "Left Leg Flurry!" He struck out with his foot, continually smashing the flaming appendage into Wapol's body in a blizzard of fast strikes.

Before he could respond to the attack, Draconian had stopped and quickly flipped to the other side of Wapol's body. "Right Leg Flurry!" And just like last time, he raised his leg up, this time his right, and delivered a barrage of attacks at Wapol's chest, driving the man back.

He tried to get his head straight and fire the guns, but Draconian had already moved on before he could even aim them. His body moved right above Wapol's chest, both legs tucked in as he prepared the final assault. "Both legs, Dragon Stampede!"

Both legs came down, kicking the man's body over and over in a storm of flames. The drive of each kick was enough to almost lift the man off his feet. He was barely able to stand up, his body fighting to not fall backwards as best it could.

Finally, Draconian stopped the barrage, bringing both legs up and tucking them close. Fire twisted up from his feet, wrapping completely around both legs, and for the third time that day, he called out the name of a certain attack.

"Dragon Comet!"

Both legs shot down, slamming square into Wapol's chest and driving him off his feet. A blast of fire accompanied the kick, lifting Wapol straight off the ground and throwing him across the ice.

Draconian landed silently on the ground. As he watched Wapol struggle to get up, his hand calmly moved to the handle of his katana. Fire eagerly erupted along the blade as it soundlessly slipped out of the sheath.

"The katana is quite an interesting sword, wouldn't you say?" He raised the sword up and casually looked over the beautiful blade. "Of course, you wouldn't know much about it now, would you? That's what I hate about your kind, thinking that they can beat anyone as long as they have a gun. There are only a few people in this world who actually have enough skill with projectile throwers that deserve to be called strong. But people like you, physically weak, so you choose to use a simple means of attack so that you don't have to put as much effort into your fighting."

He took a finger and ran it along the length of the blade, the flames licking at his skin. "But the way of the weapon is one that requires much skill. Take the katana for example." The blade snapped down, cutting and melting a line in the ice. "It is said that this particular weapon takes a lifetime to master, but if you think of it so does every other blade. You need to have great skill with it to know exactly how to use it, you need to know exactly how to use it's strike to their fullest potential.

"The strike itself is quite interesting, a basic push-pull system." He casually raised the sword and grabbed the bottom of the handle with his left hand. "Push with the top hand, pull with the bottom, that way you can get a strike powerful enough to cut right through a person's neck while not even moving the head off."

At this point, Wapol was on his right knee, his eyes trying to focus on the swing sword.

"Of course, I wouldn't try and take someone's head off, I don't like killing. But the strike itself is still powerful, and being able to use it in battle when so may things are happening so fast requires much concentration and control." He raised the sword up to his side, the flames leaping about playfully as they awaited their meal of blood.

"At the moment, I'm not sure if I have that much concentration, but that doesn't mean I still can't do it. Here, let me show you." He went into a headlong rush, the sword at his side as he headed towards the struggling Wapol.

His body was burnt, beaten, and just plain weary, there was no possible way he could do anything to prevent the attack. He tried to call upon the various guns he had eaten, but he didn't have enough concentration, and Draconian was just too fast.

"Dragon Slash!"

Pushing with his right hand, pulling with his left, Draconian slashed the blade out in front of him. The sharp edge cut a deep gash right across Wapol's chest.

And that was it. Draconian passed right by Wapol, the sword out in front as he finished the strike. Behind him, he heard the thump as Wapol fell forward, completely unconscious.

Calmly, as if nothing had happened at all, Draconian slid his sword back into the sheath. He then turned around, keeping his casual demeanor, and walked towards the unconscious form of the former king.

Taking a firm grip upon the hem of the man's polar bear cape, he started to drag the man back to the site of battle.

* * *

By the time he had gotten back, the battle was already over. All the crewman were lined up on the shore, on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs. Many of the townsmen stood watch over them with guns, making sure they didn't try anything.

Draconian could make out about only half the amount of townspeople as there was before, making him guess that all the injured were back at a town. The injured crewmen, however, were just lying unconscious near their comrades.

Off to the side, a group of townspeople were standing around the buffalo person, this time in human form. He was just as tall as wide as in his half human form, his face was square and had a thin beard along his jaw line, with short black hair on top. He looked tough, but at the same time his face gave an essence of calm and kindness.

As he spotted Draconian, the man pushed through the men he'd been talking to, taking quick steps in his direction.

Giving a good yank of the cape, Draconian threw Wapol's beaten and bleeding body at the big man's feet. He then crossed his arms and looked over at the defeated crewmen. "Nice job. So why'd you come back, thought you'd come after me and this fat piece of lard."

A small growl escaped the man's lips. "I didn't exactly have a choice, some of my men ran after me when I gave chase. Once they found me struggling to get back up, they brought me back here to tend to my headache."

"Oh, well, sorry about that. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to..."

"Hey!" The man shouted before he could walk off. "Sorry? You kicked me in the head!"

Draconian gave a few blinks and cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah, I apologize. Hey, I beat the fatass for you, you should be happy. Now, as I was saying..."

"I don't care if he was beaten, Wapol was supposed to be mine!" He pointed to himself. "That's the second time he was taken away from me! First by Straw Hat and now by you!"

That got Draconian to raise both eyebrows up. "Straw Hat was here? Now that's definitely interesting. You know where he went?"

"What? That's all you can think about? I'm yelling at you here and you don't even care!"

A sigh escaped his mouth as he rubbed his temple, his other hand resting on his hip. "Can you please just shut up about your damn issues. I don't really care if you wanted Wapol or not, but at the moment it looks like your island is okay, so be grateful. Besides, if you still want the guy, he's still right here. You can take him into an empty room and still have your way with him."

They both were silent for a while. "Yeah," Draconian said, "that last part didn't exactly come out right, but you get the idea of what I'm trying to say. Now, as for the matter of money..."

"Woah woah woah." The man interrupted. "You want us to pay you?"

Draconian's body slightly shook from his laughter. "Of course not, I'm not an ass. I'd just like to raid this guy's ship for some cash, just enough to get by till the next island. You guys can have the rest, I'm pretty sure there'll be enough left."

"Oh." He went silent and bowed his head a little. "Sorry, but I've known a few people to do this kind of thing before."

"That's alright," he gave a dismissive wave, "I can easily understand. There are a lot of cheapskates out there. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get myself some cash."

He then turned towards the ship and jumped, fire blasting from his feet to push him right onto the deck. Once on, he started looking around.

It took him a while, but he finally found one of the doors that lead below deck. As he had guessed, these lead him to where they kept their money and other treasures.

There were a few chests filled with many coins and paper beli, this was where he headed first. After taking all he needed from one of the chests, he searched around the room for anything interesting.

Shelves held many different things like crowns, decorated daggers, and other expensive things. It also held some odd objects that probably weren't worth much but were still interesting.

One thing caught Draconian's eye. It was a glass orb just like his Lock Post, an arrow hanging in it. It was inside a wooden stand, like something that would hold an hourglass but smaller. On the bottom stand was carved the word ALABASTA.

Interested, Draconian picked up the object and headed outside.

He jumped down to the shore, still inspecting the orb. "Hey," he walked towards the big man, "Do you know what this thing is?" He passed the orb over to him.

After a few seconds inspection, the man gave the thing back to Draconian. "It's a thing called an Eternal Post. It locks on to a specific island's magnetic frequency, like a Lock Post, and never varies. It's quite a useful tool in the Grand Line. Looks like this one's locked onto Alabasta. If I'm correct, I believe that's where Straw Hat was heading."

"Really?" A grin spread across his face as he inspected the thing once more. He then turned around and headed back to the inlet his ship was at. "Thanks for the info, I'm off."

"Wait!"

Draconian turned around at the shout. "Hmm?"

"You know, you haven't told me your name yet."

A chuckle emanated from his mouth. "My name's Draconian Mihawk, but you can call me Dragon. And you?"

The man planted his hands on his hips. "My name's Dalton, I'm the protector of this island."

"Well, that's not surprising. From what I saw, you fight well." With that, he turned back around and headed back towards his ship. His voice called back through the cold air. "You and I should spar some time, I'd like to come back here and learn of your pink snow."

For a while, Dalton was silent. After a few seconds, deep laughter started to rock his body, echoing through the night air to be heard by Draconian all the way to his ship.

* * *

On the edge of the giant, broken ledge of ice sat two people watching Draconian's ship sail out of the island. One was a short, old lady with frizzy hair. The other was a big, dull looking man with a big cannon on his back.

The man turned over to the woman, his lips slowly forming the word in his mind. "Wwwwwhhhyyy..."

"Why'd I place the Post there?" The woman quickly shot back at him, her voice sounding annoyed. "God you're slow! Because, you duh, he's a threat! We don't want to risk another event like with the Straw Hat! So we bring him to our turf before he can do anything and take him out! Simple, simple, simple! Why can't you understand, you duh! Duh! You're stupidity makes my back hurt!"

The man slowly turned his head back to the ship. "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

* * *

Sorry for the wait, people. I'd decided to take a long break to "study" up on One Piece. Now, I've read every single chapter and have ideas for many more of my own chapters. I promise that I won't take any more breaks from now on that will last... actually, I'm not even sure how many months ago it was that I actually last wrote. Oh, I'd also like to apologize on my Lock Post mistake, when I wrote the chapter, I was at the point where I thought that they calculated the magnetic field thing, I didn't know it locked on. I promise not to make these kinds of mistakes in the future. Now, on to the reviewers!

**Yachtzee: **Rude? Nah, you're not rude. All criticism is accepted, as long as it's not actual insults just because you like things differently, you're fine. And I don't mind you not liking dragons, I just like doing dragon themes a lot. I'll try to fix the descriptions and sentences, but you have to realize that after improving my writing from Forces of Elements to what I am to now in only a year, it's going to be difficult to refine things. Finally, don't apologize for long critiques, I always find they're one of the bests that there are.

**too lazy to log in: **First things first, just out of curiosity, who are you? I'd just like to know specifically what member you are. Okay, first I'd like to address the Marie-Sue part. I apologize if he seems stronger than you think he should be, but if you think about it, Luffy pretty much beat everyone that he fought too, and the crew didn't have too much to do with it, they just beat the second in command people, who Draconian should have no problem with. But, don't worry, he will have tougher challenges in the future. Also, I know this will sound stupid, but I never really got the full meaning of Mary-Sue, I just haven't picked it up yet. Again, I'll try to work on the other things, and never feel bad for criticizing a person. If someone gets angry because you did it then they're just self-centered idiots who don't understand that you're trying to help.

**H-girl.1: **You know what's funny? You started reviewing around the same time that I started to write this chapter. Weird, huh? Actually, I believe he's 18, 17 was when he got the fruit. And yes, he does believe chivalry is dead, but he'll still be polite to a nice girl. I'm not really too sure he's a flirt, but the girl was literally hanging on his arm, how else would he react eh? I think I have just the place to put your idea, it should be in Ch. 13 I think.

Well, can't wait to hear your reviews, I'll TTYL.


	10. Two Souls

Two Souls

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own Draconian.

* * *

Draconian took a sip of his drink, a sweet and refreshing mixture that left a nice, fuzzy feeling on his tongue; no alcohol, of course, he only drank that for special occasions. The noise of the bazaar buzzed comfortably in his ear as he leaned back in his chair, making his heart yearn for home. His own town might not have been like this one (heck, it was completely the opposite), but the feeling he got being here was much similar.

After leaving the snowy island, he had traveled through the wild seas of the Grand Line for a few days before arriving at Alabasta. He was a little worried about docking once he had seen the endless desert, but after a while of sailing he was able to find a nice oasis.

His eyes lazily scanned the crowd from behind his shades. Just like with Drum, he was careful not to reveal his eyes, you never know how people will react when you're the son of Mihawk. Plus there was the fact that he had a bounty, which got people off even more.

The men and woman, dressed in concealing clothes, headdresses, and other such all concealing clothing, except in the female dancers' cases, all jostled around attending to their businesses. Some gazed at the food on sale in the bazaar, while some headed inside buildings for who knew what reason, and some just stood around talking to other people or, in Draconian's case, sat at a shaded table and enjoyed a cool drink.

Draconian leaned back a little more and placed his feet on the tabletop. At the moment, he was dressed in his traditional style. He heard from many people that it'd be better if he wore clothing that covered his skin, to protect from sunburn or something. But he figured that idea to be stupid, his powers completely cancelled out the effect of any heat source, leaving his skin completely unharmed no matter how hot the air got.

Now, he wasn't usually the kind of guy to just sit around when he knew there were people like Crocodile out there just ripe for a challenge. But as soon as Draconian saw the stand of cool drinks and tables with shade-providing umbrellas, he just couldn't help but taking some time off for pure relaxation.

It did help him to think, however. Already he was planning on how to get to Crocodile. At the moment, his theory was that the man was probably near the capitol of the island. Not in it, of course, that would be too easy to find, but most likely somewhere near, either in the sand dunes or a close oasis town.

There were also the other members of this Baroque Works thing. They'd probably try to impede him as much as they could before he could get to the head honcho. And since Draconian wanted to face the guy with a hundred percent strength, he'd probably have to take them off the equation on his own time. After that, he'd probably rest up a little and face Crocodile head on.

As he sat pondering this and many other things, playing with the straw in his drink, a commotion erupted from down the bazaar. A woman's startled and angry shout rang through the air. Soon after, many people gathered in the streets were shoved roughly aside as two men ran through, away from where the shout had emanated.

In one of the man's hands was a bag, a few coins falling out once in a while. Behind the two, one of the street dancers chased.

"Help! Someone stop those thieves!"

The men were heading in Draconian's direction. As they got in the area of tables, the men started to throw the tables behind them, obviously trying to hinder the woman's movements.

At this time, there were people headed in the men's direction, trying to cut them off. Draconian, however, preferred a much simpler solution than just chasing. So when they ran right past his table, he casually leaned his leg out and tripped the man carrying the bag.

The man fell to the ground hard, spilling the money along with him. A second later, his partner skidded to a halt and hurried back, scuttling around on the ground with his partner to collect all the money.

With a small sigh, Draconian stopped fiddling with his drink and stood up from his chair. He took a solid stance behind the two men, back to the crowd, and crossed his arms over his chest. "If I were you, I'd just leave the money and go."

One of the men looked up, getting to his knees and pulling a dagger from his boot. "Oh yeah? And what are you going to do if we don't?"

Draconian glanced around as if trying to think. "Well," his left hand came up and slipped his shades off, revealing his birthright, while his right wrapped its fingers around the scimitar's hilt. "There are a few things I could do; it just depends on whether or not you want to find out what they are."

The blade started to slide out of the sheath, flames erupting along the cold steel.

The other man finally gathered all the money and looked back. His eyes widened and he jerked back in alarm, the bag sent flying and the money once more falling out. "Holy shit! It's the fire guy!"

The guy with the dagger froze up, his body starting to slowly shake, the dagger falling out of his now limp hand. But in a flash, he switched from shaking statue to a speedster as he turned around and ran. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

The man on the ground looked frantically back and forth. "Hey!" He shouted. "Don't leave me like this!" He scrambled up and ran after his partner, not even looking at the money.

A small chuckle arose from Draconian. "Thought so." He turned around to sit back down, sword still slightly out of its sheath and flaming.

And froze in his tracks.

Standing behind him was a young man in what Draconian guessed to be his late teens or early twenties. He had black hair underneath an orange cowboy hat, and there were a few freckles on his face. The only other piece of clothing he had on was a pair of dark blue jean shorts, leaving his muscular body exposed. He also wore a necklace of round, red beads, and on his left bicep was a tattoo that said ACE.

And in his right hand was a ball of fire.

Both of their eyes widened at the same time as they each saw the other's flames. Slowly, the two started to circle, their eyes surveying the other person from head to toe.

As the two circled, the dancer whose money was stolen earlier ran between them panting. "hah Thank you hah hah it took me so long to get all that and..." She stared at both of the men, neither of them taking their eyes off the other person and completely ignoring her. Instead of continuing further, she just walked past the two and grabbed her money.

Both men just continued circling, their minds racing at seeing the other person's fire. After about a minute, the two finally stopped, their bodies completely rigid as they stared into the other's eyes. Draconian was the first to speak.

"Oh you have got to be fucking me."

"Second that." The other man said, his shaking his head in disbelief.

"Please, oh please don't tell me what's in your hand is what I think it is." He pointed to the orange ball.

"Well, that depends," he looked down, "what do you think is in my hand?"

"A ball of fire."

For a few seconds the other man was silent, then spoke up. "Okay then, I won't tell you."

"Oh god." Draconian gave an agonized sigh and placed his hand on his forehead, placing the flaming blade back in its sheath. He turned and collapsed into his chair, taking his drink and completely dumping the rest of the liquid down his throat.

His fingers spread a little to reveal his right eye, giving a helpless look over at the other person. "What fruit did you eat?"

"Mera Mera." He walked over and pulled up another chair to sit across the table from Draconian. "You?"

"Mera Mera." His hand fell off his face as he leaned his head back against the chair's back, staring into the sky. "How the hell does this happen, I thought I was the only one with these powers."

"_You _thought? As far as I've known, there's only one type of each Devil Fruit, this just doesn't make any sense." He leaned his body against the tabletop, his forehead almost touching the glass.

For a while, the two sat in silence, until Draconian tilted his head to look over at the man. "So, what's your name?"

"Huh?" He looked up. "Oh, Ace. Portgas D. Ace."

Draconian cocked an eyebrow. "D?"

"Yeah, not sure where it comes from, just something from the ancestry I think. I think there are some other people with it. Don't need to ask your name, I recognize those eyes. A relative of that Hawkeye guy, right?"

"He's my father. The name's Draconian Mihawk." He readjusted himself in the chair so that he was once again sitting up straight. "So, what's your power?"

"What?" He raised his head back up and looked at him in disbelief. "You stupid or something?"

"No, no." He gave a wave of his hand. "I mean specifics, do you just control the flames or are you able to turn your body into it like those other elementalists?"

"Yep." He said a little proudly. "I can turn my body into the flames. Here," he placed his hand on the table, palm down. "Stab my hand."

In under a second, Draconian's tanto was whipped out of its sheath and stabbed into the man's hand. Flames danced around the blade where the skin was supposed to be, not a single drop of blood spilling.

Ace stared down at the dagger. "Huh," he said. "Interesting how you didn't hesitate to just stab me like that."

Draconian gave a shrug. "What can I say?" He took the tanto out of the flames and replaced it in the sheath. "I believed you."

"Then why did you even have to stab me?"

A small grin appeared on his face. "Because it was fun."

"Okay, disturbing." He slowly brought his hand back. "So how about you?"

"Nah, for some reason I can't do it. If you were to stab me, it would go right through the skin, and the blood would come right out. Not really sure why, but I've got my theories."

"Hmm, odd. So how do you think we could both eat the same fruit?"

"Well," he said, leaning back a little in his chair. "There are probably a few ways, I'd have to do some thinking. I do, however, have an interesting theory relating to how I can't actually turn into the flames."

"Yeah, what?" He leaned forward a little.

"Well, the way I see it, I'm not too sure that the powers of each fruit are set things. I mean, no one really knows what they're going to get until they eat one of the things, right?" An agreeing nod from Ace and he continued. "Maybe they aren't actually set things. They might be determined by the person actually eating them. The powers might be determined by some certain thing with the person. I mean, I think the reason that I can still be hurt is because I'd probably hate myself if I had powers like yours."

He looked quizzically over at Draconian. "How so?"

"The thing is, I'm the kind of fighter who doesn't like advantages like the body thing. I want to use my own skills to win fights; I barely even use my powers in a big way as it is. Maybe the fruit picked up on that and didn't allow my body to be turned into flames."

"Interesting thoughts, never thought of it that way." He gave a shrug. "But I guess anything's possible when you don't really know the truth, eh?"

"I guess." He raised a finger up in the air, signaling an order for another drink. As the waitress came by, she turned to Ace, who also ordered a drink.

"So," Ace said once they had gotten their drinks, "Where you from?"

Draconian raised his drink for a sip. "East Blue, one of the out of the way towns that pirates use to dock for a while. You?"

A smile appeared upon the man's face. "Also from East Blue, grew up in one of the smaller towns."

A warm smile grew on Draconian's face as he took a sip of his drink; somehow it just felt nice to be talking with someone from his own sea. "And what exactly is your reason for coming here?"

"You're going to have to be more specific." He leaned forward on his elbows, the drink clutched in his hands. "But as to why I'm in the Grand Line, same as everyone else. I'm a member of the Whitebeard Pirates, captain of the second command force (I'm sorry, but I can't remember what he specifically commanded). Here, look at this."

He got up and turned around, revealing a tattoo covering his back. On it was the picture of a skull with a white mustache in the shape of a long crescent, the ends pointing up. Surrounding the skull was the shape of a swastika.

After showing off the tattoo, he turned around and sat down. "Now, as to why I'm in Alabasta, I've been..." But that was all he got to, as in the next second his head just dropped forward, chin on his chest. The rest of his body stayed completely still, in the exact same position as before.

For a few seconds, Draconian just sat there watching his prone form, wondering what the hell had just happened. He didn't need to wonder long, however, as a small snore rose from the man's mouth.

Draconian cocked an eyebrow. "He's sleeping?" His hand reached forward and tapped him on the shoulder. After a few seconds of nothing, he tapped harder. Still there was nothing, so he smacked him across the face.

All this did was shift his body to the side, resulting in him falling completely out of the chair. Even still, he just lay on the ground snoring.

Instead of trying something else, Draconian just casually leaned back in his chair and took another sip of his drink. He even decided to place his feet up on the table to increase his comfort as he waited this out.

For a few minutes he just sat there, sipping his drink, until finally Ace bolted back into his chair. "Sorry about that."

Draconian gave a casual look his way. "Narcolepsy, eh?"

He started to brush some dirt off of his arms. "Yeah, gets annoying at times. But hey, I've gotten this far while having it; I bet I can keep going okay enough. Just have to watch myself when I'm near a marine, or in a fight. Where was I?"

"I believe," he said, putting down his drink. "That you were talking about why you were in Alabasta particularly."

"Right. Well," he started. "For some months I've been tracking a man named Blackbeard, used to be part of the crew but mutinied. I was in this town about a month ago, right before my brother took down Crocodile, and..."

"Wait wait wait," Draconian raised a hand in an effort to stop him. "You mean that Straw Hat kid?"

Ace blinked a few times. "You mean Luffy? Yeah, he's my younger brother. Definitely making quite a name for himself. But what could I expect, eh? He _is _my brother."

Those words triggered something in Draconian's head, and soon couldn't help asking a question. "Do you happen to know what his bounty is at the moment?"

"At the moment, no. Haven't heard about the recent stuff, but after getting rid of Crocodile he was at a hundred mil."

"Damn." He swore under his breath. "I need to catch up to him. Sorry for interrupting your story, go on."

"Well," he started up again. "Before Crocodile was beaten, I had come here to try and get some information. I found out some stuff, and took off after Blackbeard. At the moment, I'm at a little dead end, thought I was going somewhere but ran into a wall. But then I remembered that I had ran out of this town before asking as many people as I had hoped, the marines had come so I needed to leave; so I figured there might be some things I missed, and I came back." He brought the drink to his lips and took a long drag. "So how about you, why you here?"

"Crocodile. Heard he got loose and thought I'd come here and fight the guy, hopefully raise my bounty to a good number. Besides, his goons have attacked me twice; I'd like to pay the guy back." He said all this as if it was no big deal, but Ace was able to pick out the gleeful anticipation in Draconian's eyes.

"I've got no doubt that your bounty will raise to at least a hundred mil, but that's if you beat him." He took another sip of his drink, trying to hold back a grin but failing miserably.

Draconian cocked an eyebrow. "If?" He turned to fully face the guy and leaned an elbow on the table, pointing his finger at Ace's chest. "Let me tell you about my record, okay? See if you think the same way after that."

And so they talked. At first Draconian just talked about his adventures to prove a point, but after a while it actually turned to conversation. The original reason for why he was talking about them immediately erased, and soon the two were just having fun. They traded stories about where they'd gone, what they'd done, and so forth.

Ace talked much about growing up with his younger brother, including his powers. This intrigued Draconian much, for someone with powers like that to actually get this far. He also talked a lot about being a crewmember for Whitebeard, and how awesome it felt to serve under the only man to actually tie with Gold Roger.

Draconian, however, talked about growing up without a father and how it felt to be looked at badly _because _of that father. He talked about his goal of beating the man and how hard he had trained everyday. On a lighter note, he shared some of his favorite exploits and a few of his funnier moments in battle.

With all this talk, the two men forgot about the awkwardness of both having the same power. Soon, they were just talking about things that didn't even make sense as to why they were being talked about.

It felt good for Draconian, finally having someone that he could just talk to. True, he had made some discussion with people he had met on his travels, but this was probably the first time that he had actually held a good conversation with a person.

Finally, Ace leaned back in his chair, looking up at the sky. Suddenly, he whipped his body back forward, getting up off his seat and looking at the sun, which was now in the western section of the sky. "Holy crap, we've been talking for hours."

Draconian casually tilted his head back to look at the sun's position. "Looks like only a couple hours till the sun starts setting. We've got time."

Ace chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure _you _do, but I've got to get that info on Blackbeard. Sorry man, but I really need to get to the next oasis."

"Really?" Disappointment shown on Draconian's face, soon followed by a sigh as he slowly got up from his chair. "That's too bad, I was hoping we could talk some more."

Ace cocked an eyebrow. "I'm surprised. I thought you'd be wanting to look for Crocodile some more."

"Eh, Crocodile's not going anywhere, he can wait. Besides, it's not like I was going to find him today anyways." He was silent for a while, then gave a small cough. "It was nice meeting you."

He extended his arm out towards Ace. A small smile appeared on Ace's face as he took Draconian's offered hand in his own for a firm shake. "You too."

A small thudding noise interrupting the silence. With their hands still gripped, the two looked down to see a baseball land between them.

"A baseball?" Ace said, letting go of Draconian's hand and kneeling down. "How odd." He reached out and grabbed the ball, straightening back up... or at least trying to.

His face showed all Draconian needed to know as his arm struggled to lift the thing, but that didn't stop him from voicing his thoughts. "Holy shit! What the hell is this thing made of?" After a few seconds of catching his breath, he gave a heave and lifted the ball onto the table.

Only to have the table break from the weight, the metal legs snapping clean off.

The two were silent for a while as they looked down at the baseball surrounded by the destroyed table. Ace was the first to speak. "Now that is strange."

"Shh!" Draconian raised a finger to silence him. For a few seconds they just stood in silence. Finally, Draconian turned back to Ace. "Do you hear ticking?"

At first, the two just stood there, their brows slightly furrowed in confusion. After a few seconds their eyes widened in understanding.

They both ran, diving through the air with a giant leap. The move wasn't fast enough, however, as an explosion ripped through the air, smashing into the two men and sending them flying.

People ran here and there in a panic, the sound of stamping feet and women's screams permeating the air. No one paid any attention to the smoke rising from the explosion site, the only thoughts racing through their minds being the urge to get away from the danger.

In their haste, no one saw the two new people arriving at the sea. They walked casually through the lingering smoke, heading in the direction of the wall where Draconian and Ace had landed.

One of the two people was a man. His body was huge; it looked like a tall, wide barrel. His legs, however, were short, and his arms were as thin as a regular person's. He wore a light green shirt with a dark green cross, two brown belts crisscrossing over the front. His flat, puffy head was covered with a mop of yellow hair, and a pair of puffy lips stuck out above where a chin would be. A giant yellow scarf completely covered his neck, if he even had one.

The second person was a small, old woman. Frizzy red hair stuck out of a green band going around her forehead. Small, round red rimmed sunglasses hid her eyes. A simple white sweater adorned her round body, a Christmas tree decorating the front. On her back was a brown pack, and a pair of purple sweats covered her legs.

They stopped in the middle of the street, right where the bomb had exploded, the smoke still trailing up into the sky like a thin snake.

Opposite them, his back leaning against the wall in which he had been thrown into, his head bowed and his legs splayed out on the ground, was Draconian. Just a few feet to his left was Ace, his upside-down body now splattered on the same wall, the back of his shoulders pressed against the ground.

Draconian lifted his head up slowly, bending it to the sides to let out a few cracks. He put his legs underneath him and stood back up, turning to Ace and grabbing onto his arm. "Come on, get your ass up."

He tried to lift him up, only to find the body limp. The head fell back, revealing closed eyes and an open mouth, a snore grinding out from the throat.

He gave a roll of his eyes. "Oh god," He muttered under his breath. "Not again."

His left hand came up and grabbed onto the back of Ace's head, getting a firm grip of his hair. With a sharp tug, he raised him completely onto two feet. Following this, he drew his other hand back and gave a few hard slaps across his face. "Come on, wake up!"

Draconian started to shake him. With still nothing happening, he turned him so that he faced the wall. His hand suddenly yanked his hair back, and he smashed his head right into the wall, sending it right through.

Slowly, he took the man's head out, only to discover that he was still asleep and snoring.

"Well," he said. "You've got to admit, that's impressive." He let go of him, letting his limp body fall, and turned around. His eyes narrowed in surprise and curiosity as he noticed the two people for the first time. "Oh, hello."

"Don't you 'oh, hello' us you little twerp!" The small woman excitedly said, obviously annoyed as she hopped about. "We just hit you with a bomb and that's how you react! You duh! How dare you treat us like that! It makes my back hurt!"

"Oh," he said simply, pointing his finger at the in understanding. "So you were the guys who attacked me?" He looked down at Ace, casually nudging his head with his foot. After a while he looked back up at the pair. "So who exactly are you?"

The woman growled, hopping up and down in anger. The man behind her raised his head up a little, slowly moving his lips. "Wwwwwweeeeee..."

"Shut up you stupid duh! Can't you learn to speak normal! Why are you always making my back hurt with your slow speaking?" She turned back to Draconian, leaving the big guy to continue on in his slow speech. "We happen to be top agents in Baroque Works, you duh! I'm Merry Christmas, and this stupid duh," she pointed to the man next to her, "is Mr. Four. We're the ones who are going to take you out before you become a problem."

It was hard to say what made him chuckle more, the old woman's little speech or the fact that the big guy next to her was still drolling on in his slow talking.

"Become?" He said, his voice edged with disbelief. "I already _am _a problem, or at least you are. I'm not sure if you recall, but you were the guys who attacked _me_." The disbelief in his voice was now replaced by annoyance as he stared down the little woman. "First that bitch and stupid bomb head attack me in Loguetown, which I dismissed because my new bounty had come out. But then I get attacked once more in Misty Peak, this time by the whole damn town."

He placed his hand upon the hilt of his katana, taking a step forward in challenge. "You guys were the ones who started this, and it's time you start making up for it."

"Making up for it! You destroyed over a hundred of our people and took out two of our top agents! Although I have to admit, we didn't really want them back in anyways... but still, you defeated all those people, so don't go blaming this on us you stupid duh!" She took a big gulp of air, preparing for another tirade, only to be interrupted by a loud yawn.

"Hey, can you please stop that annoying yelling?" Ace pushed himself back up, going to stand next to Draconian's side.

"About damn time you woke up." He took his hand off the katana, turning to face the newly awakened Ace. "I found the guys responsible for that odd baseball; they're members of Baroque Works."

"Really?" He scratched his head. "What are they doing here? I heard that they just concentrated on Alubarna, not the docking towns."

"They said they were here to 'take me out.' Apparently, I'm becoming a threat. I have to say, it actually feels pretty nice, with the recognition and all."

The two just continued to converse, completely ignoring the two Baroque Works members. Christmas' face grew red, her teeth started grating together, and her hands curled themselves into tight fists, the nails threatening to cut into her palms.

By this time, Four had finished what he was saying and was looking down at Christmas with stupid curiosity.

Finally she cracked, running forward in a burst of furious speed. "Stop ignoring me you duhs!"

Draconian casually turned his head towards the angry woman, his expression the same as if he was looking at a child having a temper tantrum. He whipped out his katana, swinging it above his head and taking it in both hands, putting one foot forward as he did so, and brought it down upon her head.

A clang rang through the immediate area as Christmas raised her hand to intercept the sword, thick claws growing out of her fingers to clash against the blade.

Draconian pushed down harder on the sword's handle, pressing the woman's "hands" close to the ground. He straightened the sword out, pointing the tip of the blade up. After taking his left hand off the hilt and pressing it against the back of the cold steel, he gave a large push, sending the woman off her feet and flying back.

She landed on her feet a few feet in front of her partner, one hand out to steady herself. By now, her hands had widened considerably, along with her feet, and long, thick claws stuck out of each finger and toe. Her face was a little pinched, and her nose was now longer with a small black snout and whiskers on the end.

His eyes roving over her new body, Draconian rested the katana on his shoulders. "So, a zoan fruit wielder, eh? Which style is that?"

She gave a growl. "Mole, you stupid duh," she said, looking behind her afterwards. "Four! You going to help me out here or what? Your laziness is making my back hurt!"

Ace walked up to Draconian's side, looking at the odd people in front of them. "You need any help with these two?"

"Nope."

"Okay... want some anyways?"

He considered the proposal for a few seconds before answering. "Sure, why not?" He then turned back to the Baroque Works employees, his brows cocked. "So you guys going to bring it or what?"

Four turned around, cupping his hand around his mouth as he called out into the distance. "Lllllllaaaaaaasssssssssoooooooo."

From seemingly out of nowhere came a dog, or at least what Draconian first thought was a dog.

From the waist to the head it was just a regular dog, dachshund it looked like. But below that, it was a big metal cylinder, like the end of a giant cannon. Draconian didn't know how the hell the thing was able to walk as well as it did, seeing as it could only use two legs.

Ace pointed at the weird animal. "What... the hell... is _that_?"

"_That _would be my companion's dog, Lasso. He used to be a cannon, but the thing ate a Devil Fruit, dachshund style."

"Okay..." Draconian said in confusion. "How the hell does a _cannon _eat a Devil Fruit? I mean, what, do you just plunk it through the hole and POOF it turns into a dog, or what?"

The mole woman waved a hand in agitation. "How the hell am I supposed to know, you duh? I don't think Four even knows, and trying to think about it hurts my back. Let's just say it's weird and leave it at that."

Draconian rushed forward before anything else could be said, flames quickly covering the blade of his sword. He took a slash at Christmas, missing as she dived head down into the ground, digging a hole faster than Draconian could blink and already going out of sight.

He reversed the missed slash as he came upon Four. Once more, the attack didn't connect as the big man jumped over the blade and fell down into the hole.

Draconian stopped running and looked back at the hole. Already, all he could see was blackness as the tunnel stretched who knows where below the dirt street. Other than that, the only thing left indicating that the two had been there was Four's dog, who hadn't moved an inch.

At the moment, it was looking at Draconian, panting dumbly.

In response, Draconian stared back. "What are you looking at?"

As if on cue, the dog's head slowly bent up, the nose scrunching, and gave a sneeze. Out of nowhere, a baseball flew out, Draconian didn't know where from, and landed between Draconian's feet.

"Holy...!" He jumped back, landing right back next to Ace just as the bomb exploded, just missing the force of the blast. The smoke from the bomb billowed over the area around the hole, which the dog used as cover as it slowly crawled in after its owner.

For a few moments the two were silent, staring at the space that the dog had currently occupied.

"Huh," Ace said. "Don't see something like that everyday."

Draconian slowly walked over to the hole, peering into its fathomless depths. "So-o-o-o, you think we should..."

"Oh, like hell I'm going down there." He said, crossing his arms. "I may be made of fire, but that doesn't protect me from cave-ins, and I highly doubt I'd be able to protect myself from explosions down there."

Draconian let out a sigh, straightening up and taking a tighter grip of his katana. "Fine, I guess we'll just wait them out."

The two didn't have to wait long. A few seconds later, a sneeze erupted through the air, and the two whipped their heads towards where the noise had come from. The dog's head was poking out of a new hole that came out of nowhere, and it was already retreating back in its depths.

The two jumped back and out of blasting range before the ball even landed, easily escaping the explosion that erupted soon after. Once more, silence greeted their survival as they looked around the area for any more attacks.

"They're sneakier than I thought with those holes," Draconian said. "We'll have to keep on our toes."

"Duh."

A small cloud of dust puffed into the air to their left. The dog's head once more popped itself out of the newly made hole, giving them a dumb look as it panted. It wasted little time in launching another sneeze, sending another ball bomb soaring in their direction.

The two dodged to opposite sides, ducking low as the ball soared right over their heads, continuing through the air.

Feeling odd that the ball didn't land near them, the two turned around, only to discover another hole had popped up behind them. Sticking out of it was the upper half of Four, a metal baseball bat in his hand as the ball headed right for him.

"Is he crazy?" Draconian said under his breath. "Those things are heavy as hell, plus there's the little explosion feature we all love."

He swung the bat, connecting with the ball and sending it sailing right back towards Draconian.

"Well," Draconian said. "If he can hit it, so can I." With that, he jumped into the air just as the ball got near, bringing his leg back as it lit up in flames. "Dragon Sledgehammer!"

His foot whipped forward, his foot connecting with the ball, sending it only a few feet back before it fell to the ground with a dull thud. A grimace pulled at Draconian's face as he landed on one knee, clutching above his foot in sharp pain.

"Look out!" Ace shouted, rushing to Draconian's side. He wrapped his arm around Draconian's waist, giving an extra blast of fire as he pushed against the ground with his legs, sending them flying backwards, just barely dodging the ball's explosion. At the same time he sent a volley of fireballs back at four, only to miss as he ducked back down into the hole.

"Are you an idiot?" He said as they landed. "Did you really think you could just kick something that heavy right back at the guy?"

"I figured it wouldn't be as heavy as the first, he was able to smack the thing like it was made of rubber. He's a hell of a lot stronger than I thought."

Their conversation was interrupted as the ground erupted behind them, launching out the mole lady. Her claws slashed out at Ace, passing right through him as his midsection turned to fire. A small look of surprise covered her face as she passed through his body, leaving no mark on his newly formed skin whatsoever.

Draconian hopped into the air as soon as she escaped Ace's torso, angling his body to aim his bent legs at her airborne body. "Dragon Stampede!"

The multiple kicks sent her flying off to the side. Before he could do anything else to her, though, she had already hit the ground and dug down into the earth, out of his range.

A small thud sounded between the two as he landed, and out of pure instinct the two jumped away in opposite directions as the bomb exploded, dodging the explosion.

From then on, the old woman didn't dare to come up to the surface anymore, and the fight continued on much like this. The dog continually popped in and out of newly made holes, sneezing the explosive baseballs at either Draconian and Ace or Four, who popped up to hit the balls at the agile pyromancers. His aim was surprisingly accurate, and it took everything that Draconian had to dodge them. Even so, he still got hit with the fringes of an explosion every now and then, one time even catching it full on, sending him flying into a wall.

Ace was having better luck. He dodged them at a slightly better speed than Draconian, and whenever an explosion got too close, he would usually just block the blast with a wall of fire. Still, there were times when the balls came at him from unexpected places, hitting him before he could offer up any defense. He may have had the ability to turn into fire, but that only worked with pure physical attacks, explosions were able to bypass that strength. He continually fired upon Four with barrages of fireballs whenever he could, only scoring a couple of hits as the big guy ducked down into the holes before any could land.

After Draconian had taken another unexpected explosion head on, flinging him into, and almost through, a wall, Christmas finally made another appearance. She poked her pointed head above a hole, shouting over at her partner, the bat casually resting in his grip. "Four! Let's finish this one up, I'm tired with toying with these two, it's starting to make my back hurt!"

Four slowly turned his head in response to Christmas, letting out a very slow "okay" and taking his eyes off Ace.

Big mistake.

Seeing his chance at an opening, Ace summoned a giant burst of fire from his hands, drawing it to his side to create a fireball as tall as himself. He let the giant creation go, flinging it across the expanse of holes and smashing it into Four's giant bulk.

"You duh, Four!" Christmas shouted in anger. "Pay attention! Your idiocy is going to cost us this job! God, it's making my back...!"

"Dragon Sledgehammer!"

She snapped her head to the side in surprise, only to catch a face full of flaming foot. The impact sent her flying out of her hole to land roughly on the ground. Seeing Draconian's furious form behind her, she spared no time in digging back underground and out of danger.

Ace launched another barrage of fireballs at Four, missing once more as the big man ducked his burnt form back into the hole. Giving a frustrated stomp, Ace took a look around at his surrounding, watching for any surprises.

Draconian stood over the hole that Christmas had previously occupied, the fire on his feet dying down as his temper lessened. He looked over at the cautious Ace. "Hey!" he called, his manner seeming as if they weren't even in a battle. "You want to kick this thing up a notch!"

"I'm game with that!" Ace replied, jerking his head around in search of his quarry. "These guys are starting to piss me off!"

No sooner had he said this than Draconian felt something grip his ankles. He looked down, seeing Christmas's claws poking out of the ground, each one wrapped around an ankle. Her head also poked out of the ground, and she shouted out over the expanse of holes.

"Now Four, do it now!"

"Hey! Get your dirty paws off of me, you old hag!" He tried to kick out of them, only to make her grip tighten.

Meanwhile, both Four and his dog popped out of opposite holes. The dog let out a series of rapid sneezes, releasing a giant swarm of baseballs all heading towards Four. He responded in kind, smacking each ball faster than the sneezes could shoot them out, sending them all flying towards Draconian in a cloud of round death.

"Fine," Draconian said, still concentrating on Christmas. "If that's how you're going to be, then I'll have to get violent." Fire erupted from his feet, scorching Christmas's hands and making her immediately let go. Before Draconian could release a good kick, though, she had dug back into the ground to get away.

With an annoyed sigh, he glanced back up, just in time to see Four smack the last ball. The swarm of baseballs sped in his direction, stretching out to cover both sides of the street. Already, he knew that he couldn't dodge this attack, Christmas's distraction had held him too long, and now they were on him too close for him to dodge the giant blast that was to follow.

At the moment, there was pretty much only one word to describe how he was feeling as he took an alarmed step back and stared at the oncoming bombs.

"Shit."

In a flash of speed, Ace was standing in front of Draconian, left hand forward and spread while his right held Draconian back. "Stand back. Fire Haze!"

The fingers on his spread hand turned into sticks of fire, and the flames started to swirl around, growing until they created a giant wall of fire. Bombs exploded against it, creating a giant wave of explosive force. More fire added to the mix, making it thicker so it could withstand the huge blast better.

Ace turned back to Draconian. "You o-" he faltered, looking around. "Where'd he go?"

The wall of fire finally shrank, revealing only Ace behind it. This made Four scratch his head in confusion; from what he remembered, there were two people standing there.

"Hey, fatass!"

He turned his head towards the sound of the shout, seeing the other teenager just a short distance away from him, running in his direction.

Draconian's hand was drawn back, his fingers curled tightly above his exposed palm, thumb pressed against its side. Fire swirled around the hand as he ran at Four in an almost blurred speed.

"Dragon Strike!"

His palm lashed out before the big guy could do anything, smashing right into his face like a battering ram. The force of the strike bent the man completely backwards, the length of his body above the hole laid flat on the ground and now parallel with Draconian's passing arm.

He swung his leg above his head, his foot still covered in flames. "Meteor!" he shouted as he smashed the foot down on Four's big body.

A thud sounded next to him as he took his foot off of Four's body. Not even glancing to look at the bomb, he bent down and wrapped his fingers around the ticking ball. And with a sharp tug and a grunt, he picked the thing up, gripping the top as he held the thing out to the side, his fingers digging right into the skin so it wouldn't fall.

"Draconian! What the hell are you doing?" Ace shouted from his position where Draconian had just stood. "Are you going stupid on me, 'cause it's going to be difficult to fight these guys when I have a crazy person as a partner! I'd just like to know if something's happened to your head so that I can adjust to the new conditions!"

The bomb exploded in Draconian's hands before he could even look at Ace in response, covering him in a cloud of smoke.

In the few seconds it took for the small cloud to dissipate, Four had sunk back into his hole out of site. For some odd reason, Ace couldn't take his eyes off the cloud. He wasn't really awed by Draconian's stunt, he'd seen people do stupider, and he wasn't too worried, there was a good chance he'd live if he was as tough as Ace thought, but for some odd reason he just couldn't deal with looking away.

The clearing smoke revealed Draconian to be standing exactly as he had been with the bomb in his hand, the explosion not moving him an inch. The only sign at all that the explosion had occurred was his body. His face and chest weren't really damaged that much, rough patches scattered throughout the muscled body; the black powder from the bomb clung in patches all over him.

His arm, however, was a different story.

Dark red blood covered almost half of the skin, issuing out from torn skin. Almost everything else that wasn't covered in blood was black from a combination of explosive powder, injured and, oddly enough, scorched skin. His fingers looked weak, blood covering most of them and the skin looking raw.

"You think I'm afraid!" He shouted into the empty air. "You think I'm scared of your little bombs! That I'm just going to run away when you throw one at me! I've run into a cannonball head on and didn't even blink! This is _nothing_!" He scanned the area of holes hatefully. "Get your asses out here! Fight me!"

Silence greeted his shouting.

"Fine then!" He shouted, then turned to Ace. "Ace! Let's smoke these bastards out!"

Ace grinned. "I was wondering when you were going to suggest that!"

They both bent down to the holes nearest them, placing both hands above the opening, palms down, and spreading the fingers. At almost the same time, fire blasted from both men's hands, filling the shafts with a deadly light. The flames hugged the walls as they traveled through the system of tunnels, twin animals searching for their prey.

In a matter of no time, giant pillars of fire were erupting from every hole, signaling that the two snakes of fire had overtaken every inch of the tunnels. The tops of the towers arched towards the center of the street, colliding with each other and creating a brilliant explosion of flames.

The explosion spread over the sky above the street, slowly dissipating as the fire started to come down to earth. Small wisps of fire floated down like leaves, creating a beautiful kaleidoscope of interchanging light and movement.

Standing at one end of the street were Draconian and Ace, each above their respective holes. At the other was Christmas, Four, and his dog, each one with scorch marks in various places over their bodies but not even seeming to notice.

There was complete silence as the two groups stared the other down, no one moving an inch.

Christmas twitched one of her claws, the most anyone had moved after the explosion, and Draconian's eyes narrowed on the movement. Immediately, he exploded into motion, running across the destroyed street, hopping over and dodging around holes in an unpredictable blur of movement.

In response, Christmas dived back into the ground, leaving Four to lift the metal bat in preparation. The dog didn't really do anything, just stood where it was, panting and looking stupid.

Draconian started to zigzag through the field of holes even more erratically, at some points even going so far out to the side that it didn't even look like he'd come back. A few times he even went backwards, retracing his steps and starting a new pattern of movement.

"Where am I coming from, Four?" He taunted, hopping over a few holes as he did so. "You only have one strike with that bat, and then you're open. You think you can hit me, huh?"

His speed increased a little, almost going to a blur, and ran around the final expanse of holes. Once he was close, he sped to the left, going a small distance until he sharply jerked in reverse, jumping to the right so that he landed right in front of Four.

The ground to his right erupted in dust as Christmas launched herself at Draconian, claws aimed at his injured arm.

In the blink of an eye, Draconian's arm snapped out, working just as well as before the explosion, and grabbed onto Christmas's neck, stopping her in midair.

"How..." was the only thing she could get out before Draconian jerked his body to the left, dodging Four as he swung his bat straight down. He then used the momentum of the dodge to spin around, bringing Christmas back and flinging her into a nearby wall.

He sprang into action once more, jumping over Four's swung bat. The fingers on his injured hand clenched, the muscles on the arm tightening as fire twisted down the scorched skin, gathering at the hand. He brought the hand low, bending the body to the side to give more momentum to his strike. "Dragon Fist!"

The fist swung up in a tight uppercut, smashing underneath Four's chin and knocking him back. Before he could fully fall, Draconian spun his body around, extending his leg out. "Sledgehammer!"

The foot connected with Four's jaw, sending his body smashing into the ground.

Draconian landed in a crouch right next to the downed body, only to be greeted as a baseball landed right in front of him. Looking over hatefully at the dog, he snapped his arm of and grabbed onto the scruff of its neck. He then pulled it over and laid the body on top of the ball, staying above the creature so that the explosion wouldn't hit him.

A cloud of smoke billowed from underneath the dog as the explosion went off, coloring the air grey around them. Draconian let go, the dog's body a little limp, and spun around.

"Kick!" He thrust his foot out, smashing it into the dog's side and sending it flying into the same wall as Christmas, crashing right through the bricks. Something interesting caught Draconian's attention, putting him even more on guard.

The simple fact was, Christmas wasn't near the wall anymore.

Before he could even try and look for any sign of Christmas, claws stabbed up from the ground near him. Christmas didn't follow them, it was just the claws, and they slashed at his feet. He awkwardly dodged, but was too caught off guard, resulting in a few of the claws slashing his leg.

Although the dodge had been awkward, his landing was as solid as ever. He whipped out his katana on contact, stabbing it into the ground near where the claws were.

Due to the fact that there wasn't any screaming and the blade came out clean, Draconian safely assumed that he'd missed.

A slow groan emanated from behind him as Four sat back up, only to be knocked right back down as a big fireball smashed into his front.

Draconian looked over to Ace, a fireball in each hand. "I'll take care of Four," he said, launching a small volley at the big man as he started to get back up. "You try and get the old hag."

Giving him a grin and a nod, Draconian took up his sword and started to slowly stalk the area that the claws had last disappeared to. In the corner of his eye, he watched as Ace rushed Four, who was now standing.

Once close, he punched his gut with a good sized fireball. He followed up with a volley of flaming kicks to the head and sent him back into a wall with a blast of fire.

Four got right back up from the wall and started swinging with that bat, missing with every swipe as Ace danced around the metal object. He was constantly hitting the big man with short bursts of fire and solid kicks to the gut, slowly wearing him out. If he could do that to a man who smacked around those bombs like rolled up pieces of paper, he had to have been strong.

As he thought this, Draconian's sense of danger kicked in, and he jumped into the air, doing a back flip. A pair of claws ripped through the ground below him, originally coming from behind. He landed with the sword stabbing down, once again missing as the claws raced off into the distance, sinking back into the ground.

Instead of trying to chase it again, he brought his injured hand up, clenching it into a fist and covering it in flames. "Dragon Fist!"

He slammed it down into the earth, punching right through the dirt and into the underground tunnel. Grabbing onto the edge of the small hole, he gave a rough tug, ripping the opening even wider. His hands found their way into the opening, fingers spreading out as he poured fire into the tunnel.

A ways away, Christmas broke through the ground, leaping through the air like a small, hideously ugly dolphin, and landed in a different patch of ground to start a new tunnel. The fire from the tunnel shot into the air behind her, the dragon's breath missing its mark.

Draconian gave a sigh. Obviously, this technique wasn't going to work a second time.

He took off in a run, not knowing what to do yet to counter Christmas's strategy. Instead, he sped around the area of holes, keeping on the move so that Christmas didn't know where to strike. He was sure that she'd know where he was due to his tremors.

_Tremors? _He thought, an idea starting to form in his head.

He went down where he stood, landing on one knee and stabbing the length of his blade into the earth. From there, he just stayed like that, not moving from the spot. He closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of his sword.

After a while, he started to feel a slight shaking through the hilt. He followed this lead by thrusting all ten fingers around the blade and placing his ear against the dirt.

It took a while to locate the source, needing it to get stronger to detect the tremors better. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked behind him and a little to the left, and just as he had thought, a few moments later the surface of the ground started to tent up and break.

Draconian slipped his sword out of the ground and stabbed it back down a second later, now pointed towards the cracking earth, leaving only about an inch left to be seen. By this time, the tips of Christmas's white claws had broken through the ground and now stood out like small pointy towers among a barren land.

The claws rushed him, multiple shark fins detecting a pool of blood in their territory. He waited, letting them come close, making sure there was no mistake. Hopefully they didn't notice the blade, but it wouldn't matter too much, he just needed them close, just close.

He thought he saw them falter when they were within a foot of him, but by that time, it was too late.

Fire twisted around the winding dragon hilt, going following it down to run along the sunken blade. He gave a small push of the blade, sending the final bit of steel into the ground.

The earth exploded around Draconian as a blast of fire exploded from the blade. Through the small storm of fire and earth, Draconian was easily able to make out Christmas's form as she was hurled into the air by the blast, straight up and right in front of him.

He took the sword out of the destroyed ground, drawing it back and gathering the fire around him to the blade, creating a cyclone of flames around the steel. "Dragon Slash!"

He swept the sword up, slashing right up her body, the spinning flames carried by the sword smashing right into her like a snake and keeping her midair. Following the direction of the slash, Draconian moved the blade to his shoulder, gripping the hilt with both hands as he pointed the blade in Christmas's direction. "Thrust!"

He stabbed it forward, sending it right into her shoulder. It stayed only for a quick second, coming out almost immediately and stabbing forward once more, this time aimed for the stomach.

This time it didn't land, as Christmas placed her claws in front of the sword's path. The force of the blow knocked her back and out of Draconian's reach, far enough so that she'd hit the ground before he could get to her.

He didn't leave her without a gift, however. The remainder of the cyclone of flames around the blade blasted out, smacking right into her flying body and sending her farther back through the air.

She landed right next to one of the older holes, scrambling right down its mouth before Draconian could get to her.

He ran right up to the hole's edge, peering down. "One of these things again, eh? Well, let's hope she's too deep to get out."

And with that, he placed his hands over the opening, palms down and covered in flames, and started to pour fire into the inky blackness.

Before the fire could even get to the opening, claws sprang from the ground around Draconian's feet, wrapping themselves around his ankles. They didn't cut him, instead keeping a firm grip as they zipped around the street, keeping Draconian's body upright.

_Damn! _He thought. _The bitch caught me off guard. Should've been more alert!_

From underneath the ground a muffled, but still clearly heard, shout yelled out. "Four! I've got the guy, now stop playing and get ready!"

The claws started to run Draconian's body right towards Four. At the moment, the fat man was getting up from a wall, a big crater showing in its side where his body just slammed into it. His bat was leaning against the bricks.

But not for long.

In the blink of an eye, the wall behind the bat crumpled, breaking down as the bat fell through.

_Son of a bitch! _Draconian thought. _Either that wall is extremely weak, which I doubt as the fat man didn't even topple it, or that bat is heavy as hell._

Ace started forward, a fireball in each hand, as Four picked up his bat beneath the pile of rocks. He stopped as he saw Draconian being dragged towards them by Christmas's, and rushed Four before he could do what he thought.

He halted right in his tracks, though, when he saw Draconian give a small shake of his head and gave a wave, motioning the man to stop. Soon after stopping, he leapt far back through the air to dodge a swing from Four, landing at the other side of the street and staying put.

As his body sped for the fat man, Draconian slid his sword back into the sheath. He then worked to keep his body completely straight, the fact that he was being dragged by his ankles forcing him to lean back, and crossed his arms.

Four took up a regular batter's stance, standing to the side and holding the bat up to his right, waving it a little in anticipation.

Draconian readied himself, making sure he was prepared when the big man swung. He did not want to think of what would happen if that thing hit him, he may have been tough but it was stupid to think that it wouldn't hurt like hell if that thing smashed into his chest.

His body came closer to the bat every second, and he tensed his body in his own anticipation of what was about to happen.

His body came in front of the bat.

Four swung.

Ace held his breath.

Draconian moved.

In the time it takes to snap a finger, Draconian bent his body completely back from the knees, his back now parallel to the ground. The bat whistled over him, and he placed his hand out to catch it as the thing swung by. At the same time, his feet lit up in flames, making Christmas let go.

With that, his hands grabbed onto the swinging bat as his feet left the ground. Using the momentum of the swing, Draconian swung his body completely over, stretching his legs in opposite directions so that they were on either side of Four's arm.

"Dragon Scissors!" The legs snapped in, slamming into either side of Four's arm. Draconian thought he heard a small snap, and the big man dropped the bat.

The man clutched at his injured, and probably broken, arm almost doubling over in pain. Seeing his chance, Draconian spread his legs out wide, twisting his body as the fire on his feet spread to cover his whole leg. "Hurricane!"

His legs spun in a fiery wheel, continually smashing the flaming feet against the back of Four's head and sending him down to one knee.

Draconian left off with the feet and swung in front of the kneeling man, feet landing with a solid thump. He bent both arms back, palms out and fingers bent, fire swirling around the hands. "Double Dragon Strike!"

Both palms thrust forward, slamming into Four's gut and causing the man to buckle over in pain, a small bit of blood flying from between his teeth.

Draconian stepped onto the man's back, pushing off of him to launch himself high into the air. Once he was at a good height and starting to descend once more, he slid his sword out of their sheath. He started to spin around, fire twisting around his legs as flames covered his swords.

"Tornado Comet!" A cyclone of flames erupted from the swords to fall straight down, surrounding Four in a cage of fire.

Letting gravity take control of him, Draconian's spinning body fell straight down, legs leading. His feet slammed right on Four's back, forcing the man all the way down to the ground, face into the dirt.

The fire disappeared in a sudden wisp, and Draconian slipped the swords back into their respective holders. A fireball flew right over his shoulder, drawing Draconian's gaze over his shoulder as he followed the projectile.

The ball of flames slammed right into Christmas, who was sailing through the air, claws wide to slash at Draconian's exposed back. Before the blast could send her flying back, Draconian reached out and grabbed onto her frizzy hair. He gave a few spins, swinging her body along with his, and slammed her down next to Four, who was already starting to slowly get up.

Ace started to walk towards the pair, just as Draconian started to walk back from them. This put Christmas and Four right in the middle of the two, with both Ace and Draconian a good distance from them.

With a growl, Christmas got back up, looking at Draconian with intense hate. This made him smirk, and he extended his injured hand in her direction, palm up, and beckoned her.

She gave a shout born of pure fury and rushed forward in a blind run, claws extended out before her.

Draconian bent his knees, bowing his head as he took the hilt of his katana in his injured hand. "Blades of the Dragon Brethren..."

His voice echoed through the street, gradually gaining in force. His head snapped up as Christmas came within a few feet of him, his eyes locking on her body.

His right leg snapped straight up, connecting with her jaw and lifting the woman slightly off her feet. It was soon followed by the other foot, finishing the one-two kick combination and sending her flying high in the air.

As his left leg settled back on the ground, Draconian bent his legs completely, pushing off the ground with a small burst of fire to follow Christmas up. The katana came out of its sheath on the way, going up high to be taken up in both hands.

"Brother of the Sky!"

He came up even with Christmas, moving the sword in a series of fluid, double handed slashes. He finished with a slash from below, raising a line of red from hip to shoulder.

As he passed her bloody body in the air, he slipped the blade right back into its sheath. He then angled his body towards Four, who had already gotten back up, as gravity once more took control.

While he fell, his injured hand gripped onto the scimitar, slipping it a few centimeters out of the sheath, the blade already erupting in flames.

"And Brother of the Sea!" He shouted as he fell fast through the air at an angle.

The flaming scimitar snapped out of the sheath as he got close to Four's body. Without his bat, and his right arm pretty much useless, the big man was completely vulnerable to the onslaught. The scimitar swept through the air in a pattern of movement just as fluid as water, striking at Four's body faster than a viper.

He landed a good ways behind Four, hitting the ground in a crouch, scimitar out wide.

Ace went into motion before Four could collapse from the new cuts, rushing over to his direction. His fist was drawn back, fire completely obscuring the hand.

He stopped in his tracks as soon as he passed Draconian, thrusting his fist forward. "Fire Fist!"

A gigantic blast of fire issued from his clenched hand, heading right for Four and Christmas, who was still falling. The flames almost completely closed the gap between each side of the street, going as high as one of the walls and slamming right into both Four and Christmas.

The blast lasted for quite a while and extended all the way down the street. After a while of burning, the blast finally faded out, revealing the crispy bodies of Four and Christmas laying a good ways down the street, much farther away than where they had started.

Ace lowered his arm back to his side just as Draconian stood back up, back to back with his partner. He gave a few spins of his scimitar and slipped it back into the sheath, making a nice click as the final bit of steel disappeared.

He turned around and looked at the charred bodies. "So, you think they're out?"

"Looks like it, otherwise they're very good actors," he replied, looking around as he did so. "Hey, do you think the authorities of this place know of them being here?"

Draconian rested a hand on his chin, pondering. "Maybe, maybe not. But if they don't..." he flung a blast of fire into the air, a good distance above the two bodies so that it could be easily seen by the whole town. Once at the apex of its flight, the flames stopped and started to change shape, soon forming into and arrow pointing down, the words "Baroque Works agents" spelled out above it.

"Nice," Ace said, admiring his handiwork.

The two turned around and started walking down the street, both heading for the harbor. Draconian looked over his injured arm, turning it over to assess all the damage. "I've gotta get some of my medical supplies, if I don't cover this thing soon it'll probably get infected or something."

"Doesn't that hurt?" Ace said, looking over at the arm.

"It stings, yes, but I don't feel any serious pain." Draconian replied, turning his attention away from his arm and looking at the distance to his ship. "Nice fighting back there, by the way."

"Thanks, you too." He said, also turning back to look up the road. "So, uh, why exactly don't you use your fire powers more?"

"What are you talking about? I use them."

"Well, yeah, but not much." Ace said, forming a ball of fire in his hand and tossing it up and down for sport. "You only cover parts of your body with it, except for that one time you helped me with the holes and when you did that tornado thing. You never just blasted the guys with fire or anything. What's the deal?"

Draconian sighed. "I just don't like using my powers that way. I just don't see it involving great skill, it's an unfair advantage. I want to win with my actual skills, and using the fire that much takes away from that. Besides, I don't want to become dependent."

Ace gave a slow nod. "Okay, okay, I see where you're coming from. But you can still use the fire in conjunction with your fighting; make it a skillful mastery instead of a pure power thing. Besides," he said, glancing over at Draconian's impassive face. "Sooner or later, you're going to run into someone where your physical skills alone won't do shit. Then, you'll have to use your Devil Fruit abilities. And if I were you, I'd at least start training with them so that when that day comes, you'll at least be capable of using them well enough."

"I don't know," he replied, slowly shaking his head. "It just doesn't feel too right to me."

"Then why did you even eat the fruit in the first place?"

That simple question sent Draconian back. Why had he eaten the fruit if he wanted to rely on his actual skills?

Ace saw the look on Draconian's face and paused. After a few seconds of silence, he patted Draconian on the shoulder and started walking again. "Well, you think about that. Come one," he said, beckoning Draconian to follow. "I'm leaving, got all the info I need. I'd like to ask you a question before I go."

"What?" Draconian said curiously, catching up to the man.

"Well, I was wondering," Ace said, placing a hand behind his head. "Would you like to join Whitebeard alongside me? I bet after a short while you could increase those skills of your and become an officer like me."

He knew even before finishing what Draconian's answer would be, but he was still disappointed when he heard.

"Sorry, I'm a loner. If I wasn't, I'd love to, but I really need to make a name for myself _by _myself. Besides, if I'm going to beat Whitebeard in a fight, I think it might be awkward if I'm already a member of his crew."

Ace chuckled, his disappointment already disappearing. "Yeah right, I'd like to see you try. Bet you can't even beat me at the moment."

"I never said now, just in the future, when I become better than my dad, then I'll go on to become the best fighter in the seas. Soon, Whitebeard will just be a crossed off name on my list of targets, along with you and everyone else I meet."

By this time, the two had reached the mouth of the harbor.

Ace gave a soft smile, giving Draconian a playful push. "Well, I can't wait to see you when you're at that level. Next time we meet, how about a nice spar, eh?"

"Yeah, sure," Draconian said, a similar smile on his own face. "I'd like that."

An uncomfortable silence came between the two. Slowly, Ace extended his hand up.

Seeing the hand, Draconian's smile grew even bigger. He raised his hand up and clapped it against Ace's, fire erupting from between the two's palms as they squeezed.

With that small ritual of friendship over, Ace turned around and started to head towards his boat. He raised his hand in a dismissal wave as he gave one last glance Draconian's way. "Till the next time we meet, Dragon from the East Blue!"

"Till the next time we meet, then!" He shouted back with a laugh. After seeing Ace turn around, he himself turned and started to walk in the opposite direction, towards his own ship. After a few steps he stopped, pondering. "Dragon from East Blue, hmm?" He said, rubbing his chin.

"I like that."

* * *

Okay, there were some parts where it took me a while to know what to write, so sorry if it took longer to write this than it should have. Personally, though, I really liked this chapter. I'm not sure why, but it just seemed different than the others. I can't wait to write the next one, that is going to be awesome! Wait till you see the fight in the next chapter, it's going to be nice! Well, on to reviews.

**H-girl.1: **Um, wasn't he called Dracky in Ch. 8? I think you might b behind a chapter there. And yes, he will fight Zoro, that'll be just before the fight with Luffy. I'm going to have it so that he doesn't use his power when fighting him, that way it's just a pure test of swordsmanship. It'll be nice.

**Ace D. Portgas: **Well, when I heard it it was Dracule, so I guess I'm stuck with that specific translation. If it's the wrong one, then too bad, I can't change it now. I'm kind of screwed with Draconian's name too. I guess that Mihawk was the thing I was supposed to change, but again, I'm kind of screwed, so I'll have to pretend that Mihawk is the family name now. Well, hopefully you like the later chapters too along with the first.


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